o 


WAR  AND  WASTE 


WAR  AND  WASTE 

A  SERIES  OF  DISCUSSIONS 
OF  WAR  AND  WAR  ACCESSORIES 

By 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 


"  /  confess  without  shame  that  1  am  tired  and  sick  of 
war.  Its  glory  is  all  moonshine.  Even  success,  the 
most  brilliant,  is  over  dead  and  mangled  bodies,  the 
anguish  and  lamentations  of  distant  families,  appealing 
to  me  for  missing  sons,  husbands,  and  fathers.  It  is 
only  those  who  have  not  heard  a  shot,  nor  the  shrieks 
and  groans  of  the  wounded,  friend  or  foe,  who  cry  aloud 
for  more  blood,  more  vengeance,  more  desolation." 

General  WILLIAM  T.  SHERMAN  (1865). 


GARDEN  CITY       NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1913 


Copyright,  1912,  1913,6? 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of 

translation  into  foreign  languages  t 

including  the  Scandinavian 

COPYRIGHT,  IQI2,  BY  THE  INDEPENDENT  WEEKLY,  INCORPORATED 
COPYRIGHT,  igi2,  BY  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


TO 

THE  MEMORY  OF 
SIR    CHARLES   BAGOT 

AND  OF 
RICHARD  RUSH 

patriots  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  who  excluded  warships  from 

the  Great  Lakes  of  America,  and  thus  secured  lasting  peace 

between  two  great  nations.      Where  there  are  no 

soldiers  there  is  no  war;  when  nobody  is  loaded, 

nobody  explodes. 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

This  volume  contains  a  series  of  addresses,  essays 
and  editorials  having  the  purpose  of  opposition  to 
war,  to  war  scares,  and  to  war  accessories  in  general. 
The  address,  "War  and  Waste,"  was  delivered  at 
the  Harvard  Union  in  1911.  The  four  essays 
which  follow  are  reprinted  from  the  World? s  Work 
with  the  consent  of  the  editor.  The  editorials, 
"What  Shall  We  Say?"  have  appeared  in  the 
Atlantic  Monthly,  the  Independent,  and  journals  at 
home  and  abroad. 

D.  S.  J. 

Stanford  University,  California. 
June  20,  1913. 


vfi 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTEl  PAGE 

I.  War  and  Waste        ....  3 

II.  Foreclosing  the  Mortgage  on  War     .  41 

III.  The  Perennial  Bogey  of  War   .         .  52 

IV.  Taxing  the  Cost  of  Living        .         .  70 
V.  The  Interlocking  Directorate    .         .  97 

VI.    The  Higher  Politics          .         .  .105 

VII.    Naval  Waste  .         .         .  .     113 

VIII.    Japan  and  The  United  States  .  .     136 

IX.    The  Federation  of  Europe  .  .152 

X.    What  Shall  We  Say?       .         .  .162 

I.    Peace  and  the  Balkans  .  .     162 

II.    Shall  the  Turk  Go?      .  .     165 

III.  Why  the  Turk  Fails      .  .     167 

IV.  The  Fate  of  Armenia    .  .170 
V.    The  Great  War  of  Europe  .     173 

VI.    Twenty-five  Thousand  at  Pan-  179 

ama     ..... 

VII.    The  Canal  and  Its  Enemies  .  181 

VIII.     "Our  Ships"  and  Our  Money  183 

IX.    The  Open  Door  at  Panama     .     1 86 
iz 


x 

CHAPTER 


CONTENTS 


MM 

X.    What  Shall  We  Say?  —  Continued. 

X.     Which  Ship  Goes  First?  .     187 

XI.    The  Monroe  Doctrine     .  .189 

XII.    The  Size  of  the  Navy.  .     193 

XIII.  At  the  Drop  of  the  Hat  .     197 

XIV.  The  Unready  Navy    .  .201 
XV.    Military  Conscription  .     206 

XVI.  The  Abolition  of  Piracy      .     210 

XVII.  Entangling  Alliances  .  .212 

XVIII.  The  Pest  of  Glory  .  .  215 

XIX.  The  Force  of  Arms  .  .  223 

XX.  The  Fighting  Edge  .  .  225 

XXI.  The  Net  of  the  Usurer  .  229 

XXII.  The  Fertile  Dreadnaught  .  231 

XXIII.  The  Ships  and  the  Tension       235 

XXIV.  Fort  Graft          .         .         .239 
XXV.  The  Dream  of  Universal  War    240 

XXVI.  The  Defense  of  the  Pacific  .  244 
XXVII.  Pearl  Harbor      .         .  .251 
XXVIII.  Magdalena  Bay  .         .  .  254 
XXIX.  The  Samoan  Precedent  .  260 
XXX.  Japanese  Immigration .  .  261 
XXXI.  Anti-alien  Legislation  in  Cali- 
fornia   .         .         .  264 


CONTENTS  xi 

CHAPTER  FACE 

X.     What  Shall  We  Say?  —  Continued. 

XXXII.    The  Race  Problems  of  America  268 

XXXIII.  Who  Is  the  Enemy?   .         .  272 

XXXIV.  The  Six-power  Loan  to  China  277 
XXXV.    The  Old-Age  Pension  .         .  279 

XXXVI.    Popularize  the  Navy    .         .  283 

XXXVII.    The  American  Peace  Policy  .  285 

XXXVIII.    What  is  Peace?    .         .         .288 

APPENDIX 291 


WAR  AND  WASTE 


CHAPTER  I 
WAR  AND  WASTE 

f  •  \HE  movement  of  civilization  is  toward  a  new 
conception  of  the  State,  not  as  a  "power," 

^  but  as  a  centre  of  jurisdiction.  Its  main 
function  is  not  as  in  medieval  times  to  exercise  force 
beyond  its  borders,  or  to  bring  unwilling  peoples 
under  its  sway,  but  rather  to  maintain  peace  and 
justice  within  its  limits,  other  states  having  outside 
its  boundaries  the  same  function  exercised  in  a  similar 
way.  The  Canadian  boundary  marks  the  northern 
limit  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
beginning  of  precisely  similar  jurisdiction  on  the  part 
of  Canada.  It  is  not  a  line  of  battle,  and  a  citizen  of 
either  nation  can  travel  in  the  other  or  even  per- 
manently establish  himself  there  without  loss  of 
comfort  or  rights.  The  railways  of  one  nation  freely 
traverse  the  other  when  necessity  arises,  and  the 
relative  size  or  "power"  of  the  two  nations  in  no  way 
affects  these  conditions. 

Viewed  as  a  "power"  in  the  medieval  sense, 
Germany,  for  example,  is  crowded  and  hampered  on 

3 


4  WAR  AND  WASTE 

every  side.  She  is  largely  shut  off  from  the  sea  on 
the  one  side,  from  the  Orient  on  the  other.  Millions 
of  people  of  German  blood  are  cut  off  by  the  boun- 
daries, becoming  citizens  of  Austria  or  Switzerland, 
instead  of  Germany.  Her  boundaries  north,  east, 
and  west  are  marked  by  giant  fortresses  and  scarred 
by  old  wars,  while  of  oversea  dependencies,  the  glory 
and  the  cost  of  modern  empire,  nearly  all  worth 
having  were  preempted  before  the  modern  Empire 
of  Germany  was  born.  Even  the  German  Rhine  is 
German  for  its  middle  part  only,  and  of  the  Danube, 
the  navigable  part  begins  where  Germany  leaves  off. 

But  considered  as  a  modern  state,  Germany  suffers 
nothing  from  these  limitations.  Her  power  is  quite 
as  adequate  to  look  after  the  welfare  of  her  people  as 
though  no  limitations  existed.  Her  universities  are 
just  as  great,  her  factories  as  busy,  her  people  as 
prosperous  as  though  the  whole  land  from  the 
Bosphorus  to  the  British  Channel  were  under  the 
German  flag.  Her  people,  when  passing  the  bord- 
ers outside  the  German  jurisdiction,  find  no  lack 
of  justice,  no  [increase  of  taxation.  The  flag  of 
civilization'floats  over  all. 

Considered  as  a  "power,"  the  great  State  of 
Illinois,  one  tenth  as  populous  as  Germany,  is 
hampered  in  a  similar  way.  She  reaches  neither 
sea  nor  mountains,  and  her  navigable  rivers  are 


WAR  AND  WASTE  5 

shared  with  a  dozen  other  states.  But  no  citizen  of 
Illinois  ever  felt  himself  cramped  by  these  misfor- 
tunes. Illinois  is  a  modern  state,  a  region  of  juris- 
diction and  not  a  "power, "or  centre  lof  military 
force. 

Similarly,  Germany.  England.  Francey  the  United  «. 
States,  as  civilization  progresses,  must  cease  to  be 
"powers"  to  become  part  of  the  organized  civili- 
zation of  the  earth.  When  each  state  accepts  this 
attitude,  becoming  the  representative  of  its  people 
and  trusting  other  states  in  like  fashion,  we  shall 
realize  the  ideals  of  international  peace.  These 
ideals  are  not  realized  in  the  conditions  of  peace  in 
Europe  to-day.  These  conditions  have  been  defined 
as  "  bankruptcy  armed  to  the  teeth, "  which,  as  Gam- 
betta  once  said,  shall  find  its  final  climax  in  "a 
beggar  sitting  by  a  barrack  door. " 

International  peace  means  mutual  £esj)ect  and 
mutual  trust,  a  condition  in  which  the  boundary  line 
between  states  is  not  a  line  of  suspicion  and  hate,  but, 
like  the  boundaries  of  provinces,  a  convenience  in 
judicial  and  administrative  adjustments.  Such  a 
boundary  as  this  is  found  in  the  four-thousand-mile 
line  which  separates  Canada  from  the  United  States, 
an  undefended  border  which  for  nearly  a  hundred 
years  has  not  known  a  fortress  nor  a  warship  nor  a 


6  WAR  AND  WASTE 

gun.  There  is  nothing  of  which  the  two  great  North 
American  nations  have  a  greater  right  to  be  proud 
than  this  boundary  of  trust  and  confidence.  It  is 
the  beginning  of  the  new  era,  the  era  of  justice  and 
peace  among  the  nations. 

The  end  of  our  efforts  is  found  in  the  conception  of 
peace  through  law.  A  natural  law  is  the  expression 
of  the  way  in  which  things  normally  come  about. 
Human  law  is  the  expression  of  the  best  relations 
among  men.  In  war,  the  conceptions  of  right  and 
duty  disappear.  In  arms,  the  laws  are  silent.  Worse 
ways  of  doing  things  take  the  place  of  better,  to  the 
detriment  of  society  and  of  the  individual  man. 

The  whole  movement  of  civilization  has  been 
from  strife  toward  order.  In  barbarism,  every  man's 
hand  is  against  every  other.  In  barbarism,  the  life 
of  every  man  and  woman  is  a  tragedy.  As  man  has 
risen  cooperation  has  taken  the  place  of  compulsion. 
Men  have  brought  peace  to  their  families  and  their 
neighbourhoods  by  working  together  to  exclude  war. 
They  have  learned  more  and  more  to  leave  their 
differences  to  the  decision  of  others,  either  through 
arbitral  settlement  or  judicial  decision.  The  one 
brings  about  a  condition  of  mutual  tolerance;  the 
other  strives  toward  ideal  justice.  And  in  the  world 
of  to-day  both  methods  find  their  centre  in  the 
councils  and  tribunals  at  The  Hague. 


WAR  AND  WASTE  7 

In  such  fashion,  step  by  step,  men  have  passed 
from  tribal  wars,  municipal  wars,  struggles  of  robber 
barons,  and  of  rival  dynasties,  marauding  expedi- 
tions, holy  wars  and  wars  unholy,  to  relative  peace 
within  the  borders  of  the  nation.  The  only  place 
where  killing  on  a  large  scale  is  legalized  is  on 
the  line  where  great  nations  meet.  Along  these 
borders  to-day  the  most  crushing  burdens  of  war 
machinery  the  world  has  ever  imagined  are  steadily 
piling  up.  All  this  is  avowedly  in  the  interest  of 
final  peace,  of  "peace  by  preponderance,"  the  peace 
of  dread  and  dreadnaughts,  the  peace  which  is  the 
twin  sister  of  war,  and  the  greater  the  "peace  estab- 
lishments" thus  built  up,  the  more  frequent  are  the 
war  scares  and  the  more  insistent  the  danger  of 
actual  war. 

The  chief  purpose  of  national  existence  is  to  en- 
sure local  peace.  Its  extension  defines  a  limit  in 
which  peace  shall  exist.  This  does  not  inhibit  riots, 
violence,  or  civil  wars,  because  no  one  can  guarantee 
that  a  nation  shall  be  just  within  its  own  jurisdiction, 
nor  that  a  people  shall  be  docile  and  law-abiding, 
even  when  fairly  treated  by  those  in  authority. 
But  the  tendencies  of  national  development  make  for 
national  peace.  The  growth  of  popular  government 
makes  everywhere  for  better  understanding  among 
men,  and  groups  of  men  who  know  each  other  recog- 


8  WAR  AND  WASTE 

nize  their  common  humanity  and  common  interests 
as  far  outweighing  their  desire  for  fight. 

Along  the  international  borders,  or  at  times  the 
boundaries  of  races,  ill-feeling  and  violence  are  most 
likely  to  appear.  Across  these  same  borders  a 
thousand  emissaries  for  good  are  also  passing,  from 
day  to  day.  The  missionary  has  been  a  powerful 
agency  for  peace.  So,  likewise,  is  the  commercial 
traveller,  the  board  of  trade,  the  international  com- 
mission, the  world  congress,  and  all  other  agencies 
for  bringing  men  together  on  the  basis  of  common 
interest  and  common  trust.  The  world  over,  men 
engaged  in  similar  work,  though  in  different  nations, 
have  more  in  common  than  the  men  of  the  different 
groups  within  a  single  nation. 

The  steady  extension  of  unification  in  international 
life  is  a  guarantee  that  international  war  among 
civilized  nations  has  already  come  to  an  end.  The 
old  impulses  for  international  war  have  passed  away. 
The  dream  of  a  unified  church  and  a  unified  state, 
including  all  Christendom,  and  both  held  together 
by  force,  no  longer  exists.  The  Holy  Roman 
Empire  is  only  a  memory.  The  marauding  nation, 
which  lives  on  the  spoils  of  its  neighbours,  has  not 
been  possible  for  a  hundred  years.  No  war  can  bring 
financial,  social,  or  political  gain  to  any  nation,  as  the 
world  goes  to-day.  No  leader  can  congratulate  his 


WAR  AND  WASTE  9 

army  as  did  Napoleon,  after  Mantua,  on  its  amount 
above  expenses  it  has  sent  home  to  its  national 
treasury.  This  idea  of  profit  through  war,  dominant 
so  long,  has  been  lately  characterized  as  "the 
Great  Illusion."  Even  the  control  by  force  of  half- 
barbarous  states  is  a  matter  of  tremendous  expense 
and  no  profit.  Wars  of  spoliation,  imperial  wars, 
must  go  the  way  of  international  wars,  as  too  costly 
for  the  people  of  a  modern  industrial  state.  Victory 
or  defeat  alike  bring  disorder,  confusion,  debt,  and 
bankruptcy.  An  armed  peace,  by  which  nations 
are  supposed  to  be  frightened  into  acquiescence,  is 
in  the  long  run  likely  to  be  equally  ruinous.  Though 
war  has  ceased,  its  cost  still  goes  on.  Since  Jean  de 
Bloch  sounded  his  first  majestic  warning  as  to  the 
financial  ruin  involved  in  war,  the  war  debts  of  the 
nations  have  mounted  higher  and  higher,  and  the 
yearly  budget  for  war  machinery  has  doubled  and 
doubled,  and  is  still  rising  at  an  accelerated  pace. 
To  borrow  money  implies  money-lenders,  and  an 
adequate  group  of  such  could  not  be  developed  save 
on  an  international  scale  even  as  is  now  actually  the 
case.  A  gigantic  national  debt  involves  an  invisible 
empire  which  shall  direct  and  control  credit.  The 
foundation  of  such  an  empire  was  laid  less  than  a 
century  and  a  half  since  by  the  pawnbroker,  Mayer 
Amschel,  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  doing  business 


io  WAR  AND  WASTE 

under  the  sign  of  the  Red  Shield.  He  was  the 
financial  adviser  of  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse-Cassel, 
and  the  funds  controlled  by  him  made  him  a  factor 
in  large  affairs.  As  "uncle"  to  the  king  of  Den- 
mark, his  importance  was  enhanced  and  the  in- 
genuity of  his  gifted  son,  Nathan  Rothschild,  at 
Waterloo  and  at  London  forced  the  downfall  of  the 
house  of  Bonaparte  to  ensure  the  rise  of  the  house  of 
Rothschild.  In  every  subsequent  financial  trans- 
action of  every  nation  of  Europe,  the  princes  of  the 
Unseen  Empire  have  taken  the  leading  part.  From 
the  battle  of  Waterloo  until  his  death  Nathan  Roths- 
child was  the  actual  ruler  of  Europe. 

The  crown  of  the  last  Napoleon  was  bought  and 
held  in  its  place  by  the  gold  of  the  Unseen  Empire, 
while  the  struggle  in  which  this  crown  fell  was 
financed  on  both  sides  alike  by  the  majestic  masters 
of  finance.  These  money-lenders  on  both  sides  alike 
belonged  to  the  group  that  knows  no  nationality 
and  acts  on  no  cross  purposes.  The  drastic  exac- 
tions of  Germany  were  fixed  by  the  Invisible  Empire. 
By  the  same  men,  these  vast  sums  were  advanced, 
the  loan  being  finally  repaid  in  large  part  by  the 
patience  and  thrift  of  the  people  of  France.  And  the 
debt  once  paid,  the  sum  was  borrowed  again,  in  part 
for  railway  extension,  but  for  the  most  part  the  loan 
went  into  the  bottomless  pit  of  militarism,  until  the 


WAR  AND  WASTE  11 

debt  of  France  to-day  overtops  that  of  all  other 
nations  of  the  world.  To  control  it  is  not  necessary 
to  own.  We  find  the  difference  in  our  American 
problems  of  railway  management.  As  may  con- 
trol a  railway  without  owning  it,  so  may  one  control 
likewise  a  nation.  It  is  only  necessary  to  control 
its  need  for  money.  And  the  control  of  the  debt  of 
Europe  means  the  final  decision,  accidents  excepted, 
of  all  questions  of  high  finance,  of  war  and  spoliation 
and  peace. 

A  hundred  years  ago  there  was  published  in  France 
a  cartoon  of  finance.  A  farmer  ploughed  in  the 
field,  on  his  back  a  frilled  marquis  of  the  old  regime 
tapping  his  dainty  snuff  box.  Not  many  years  ago 
appeared  another  cartoon.  The  farmer  still  ploughed 
in  the  field,  on  his  back  a  soldier,  armed  to  the  teeth, 
and  on  his  back  in  turn  a  money-lender.  And  the 
money-lender  rides  on  the  nation's  back  to-day. 

The  debt  of  France  to-day  is  six  thousand  millions 
of  dollars.  This  is  practically  all  war  debt,  because 
without  war  France  could  have  paid  her  way  without 
borrowing.  The  interest  paid  each  year  is  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  millions  of  dollars.  The  war  debt 
of  Europe  to-day  exceeds  twenty-seven  thousand 
millions  of  dollars.  The  yearly  interest  is  over  a 
thousand  millions  of  dollars.  The  debt  will  never 
be  paid,  can  never  be  paid.  Two  of  the  great  instru- 


12  WAR  AND  WASTE 

ments  in  national  slavery  are  the  deferred  payment 
and  the  indirect  tax.  "The  system  of  laying  burdens 
on  posterity,"  says  Goldwin  Smith,  "removes  the 
last  check  on  war. "  By  means  of  indirect  taxation, 
the  people  never  know  what  they  are  paying.  By 
means  of  war  debt,  the  cost  is  shifted  to  generations 
still  unborn. 

The  interest  money  exacted  and  the  millions 
spent  from  year  to  year  on  armament  mean  the  final 
collapse  of  European  industry  unless  the  process  is 
somehow  checked.  The  interest  is  beyond  the 
capacity  of  the  people.  The  rule  that  "  in  expanding 
nations  war  shall  consume  the  fruits  of  progress"  is 
so  univeral  that  it  has  been  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a 
law,  "Johnson's  Law  of  National  Waste."  The 
world's  annual  production  of  gold  is  little  more  than 
one  third  of  the  interest  money  due  in  Europe.  The 
world's  entire  stock  of  gold  is  little  more  than  one 
fourth  of  the  war  debt  of  Europe.  The  unpaid  bal- 
ances must  be  added  to  the  principal,  which  mounts 
higher  with  its  attendant  interest.  Most  payments 
are  made  in  credits,  of  course,  and  credits  must  be 
added  to  the  principal.  The  great  ogre,  war,  says 
Bastiat,  "devours  as  much  when  he  is  asleep  as  when 
he  is  awake."  War  armament  is  the  beginning  of  war 
and  war  on  borrowed  money  is  a  two-edged  sword 
which  cuts  both  ways. 


WAR  AND  WASTE  13 

Besides  the  vast  sums  demanded  as  interest  on  old 
debts,  the  annual  expenditure  of  the  world  on  armies 
and  navies  in  these  times  of  peace  passes  £4,000,000,- 
ooo  every  year.  This  is  extorted  by  taxation,  a 
present  load  on  industry  and  commerce  over  and 
above  all  demands  made  by  the  war  debt  which  no 
man  and  no  nation  ever  intends  to  pay. 

The  deferred  war  debt,  the  malignant  device  of 
Pitt  a  little  more  than  a  century  ago,  has  now  become 
the  over-shadowing  danger  of  national  life.  It 
is  not  clear  where  its  operations  may  end.  No  check 
remains  to  its  operations  to-day,  nor  any  prospect 
of  a  check  in  the  near  future.  Democracy  does 
not  arrest  it.  A  nation  can  borrow  when  a  king  can- 
not. Probity,  statesmanship,  do  not  affect  it.  The 
"watchdog  of  the  treasury"  has  a  thankless  task. 
He  meets  with  scant  favour  from  his  brethren.  The 
sordid  deals  and  extortions  of  the  kings  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  were  trivial  transactions  compared 
with  the  expenditures  of  the  free  nations  who  put 
their  money  into  ships  of  war.  So  long  as  Great 
Britain,  by  virtue  of  her  primacy  in  commerce  and 
civilization,  was  entitled  to  twice  —  with  10  per 
cent,  added  —  the  number  of  warships  possessed  by 
any  other  nation,  and  so  long  as  Germany  is  more 
populous  than  England  and  more  effective  industri- 
ally, while  yet  possessed  with  the  medieval  spirit 


i4  WAR  AND  WASTE 

of  military  rivalry,  there  seems  no  way  out.  France 
at  first  unwillingly  and  the  United  States  with 
joyous  recklessness  are  swept  on  the  same  path  into 
the  same  whirlpool.  All  seem  possessed  with  the 
belief,  once  true,  that  all  peoples  are  watching  to 
pounce  on  the  nation  which  leaves  itself  unarmed. 
In  this  feeling,  all  consideration  of  the  growth  of 
civilization,  common  interest,  and  common  decency 
is  thrown  to  the  wind.  The  Great  Illusion  remains 
that  such  invasions  would  be  profitable,  with  the 
further  illusion  that  they  would  be  even  possible. 
Neither  profitable  nor  possible  could  they  be  at  the 
present  time;  nor  can  it  be  long  possible  for  debt  and 
armament  alike  to  increase  as  they  are  now  increas- 
ing. 

The  entire  wealth  of  six  leading  countries  of 
Europe  is  very  roughly  estimated  at$24O,cx>D,ooo,C)OO, 
a  little  less  than  ten  times  the  war  debt  of  these  same 
countries.  It  is  an  interesting  question  in  mathe- 
matics to  know  how  long  the  wealth  may  outrun  the 
debts.  For  the  wealth  rises  by  arithmetical  pro- 
gression, the  debts  by  geometrical  progression,  the 
rise  of  compound  interest.  It  is  not  strange  that  the 
average  wealth  of  the  citizen  is  greater  in  the  small 
countries  of  Europe  than  in  the  large  ones;  in  Switzer- 
land and  Holland  than  in  Germany;  that  the  com- 
merce per  capita  is  greater  in  these  small  ones,  and 


WAR  AND  WASTE  15 

that  bonds  of  the  smaller  nations  sell  on  a  higher 
basis  than  those  of  Great  Britain  and  of  Germany. 
It  is  not  strange  that  Booker  Washington,  in  a  late 
visit  to  Europe,  should  declare  that  in  certain  regions 
of  southern  Europe  the  common  folk  had  less  oppor- 
tunity, less  hope,  less  income,  than  is  the  lot  of  the 
negroes  of  Alabama.  It  is  by  the  condition  of  the 
common  folk  that  the  prosperity  of  all  nations  should 
be  measured.  It  is  not  the  status  of  the  banker, 
the  trader,  the  landholder,  the  professional  man, 
the  university,  the  theatre,  the  art  gallery,  which 
determines  the  place  of  the  nation.  It  is  the  chance 
of  the  common  man  to  make  the  most  of  himself. 
We  may  not  judge  England  by  the  neighbourhood  of 
St.  James's,  nor  France  by  the  Place  de  1'Opera,  nor 
Russia  by  the  fair  streets  of  her  capital.  We  must 
value  the  nations  by  the  kind  of  life  lived  by  the 
generations  that  come  and  go  unnoticed  in  the  pages 
of  romantic  history.  And  before  this  court  of  judg- 
ment the  war  debt  is  a  monstrous  wrong,  a  crime  com- 
mitted by  the  last  generations  against  the  rights  of 
those  that  follow.  To  waste  men's  earnings  is  to 
waste  men's  lives. 

"In  war  time,"  says  Edward  H.  Clement, 
"always  the  contractors,  the  money-lenders,  the 
grafters,  the  whole  catalogue  of  parasites  preying  on 
the  life-blood  of  the  community,  are  winners, 


16  WAR  AND  WASTE 

no  matter  which  of  the  combatants  may  lose,  even 
when  the  loser  is  their  own  country.  There  is  the 
same  opportunity  at  the  other  extreme  of  the  social 
scale  in  the  Invisible  Empire  as  that  seized  on  by  the 
criminal  classes  and  the  baser  elements  of  mankind 
in  a  .city  given  over  for  the  hour  to  rioting.  The 
looting  mob  suddenly  makes  its  appearance  and  takes 
full  advantage  of  the  situation,  reaping  the  same  sort 
of  greedy  harvest  as  the  dealers  in  foodstuffs  and 
arms  and  ships,  shoes  and  clothing  and  government 
bonds  do  in  their  field  of  operations,  when  for  a  time 
the  wonted  order  of  civilization  is  broken  between 
nations. " 

In  similar  vein,  Burke  speaks  of  certain  traders 
in  war-time  as  "scenting  with  delight  the  cadaverous 
odour  of  lucre."  When  nations  struggle  for  life  or 
death,  this  is  the  pirate's  opportunity. 

One  of  the  momentous  periods  in  the  political 
history  of  the  world  is  that  of  the  coming  together 
near  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  of  these 
various  conditions:  Constitutional  government,  me- 
chanical invention  applied  to  war  and  enormously 
increasing  its  expense  and  destructiveness,  the 
change  of  war  itself  from  disputes  between  politicians 
to  a  life-and-death  struggle  between  nations,  the 
growth  of  a  cooperating  banking  system  with  ramifi- 
cations wide  and  strong  enough  to  take  whole  nations 


WAR  AND  WASTE  17 

in  pawn  in  exchange  for  ready  money,  and,  lastly, 
statesmen  ready  to  pledge  the  future  to  any  extent 
for  the  sake  of  temporary  advantage. 

Constitutional  government  gives  stability  enough 
to  make  deferred  payments  on  a  vast  scale  possible. 
The  old  kings  had  to  pay  on  the  spot  and  made  their 
way  by  extortior,  graft,  sale  of  favours,  debasement 
of  coinage,  by  fawning  and  by  violence.  A  nation 
could  borrow  money  it  was  never  expected  to  pay,  if 
it  could  keep  up  the  charges  of  interest.  Hence  the 
debt  of  France  to-day  is  many  times  as  great  as  Louis 
the  Magnificent  was  ever  able  to  make  it.  Even 
the  interest  charges  alone  to-day  equal  the  high- 
water  mark  of  the  royal  loans  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Mechanical  invention  has  supplanted  the  old 
wooden  frigate  with  the  dreadn aught  and  the  super- 
dreadnaught,  gigantic  floating  forts,  each  one  costing 
an  emperor's  ransom,  and  each  one  sending  all 
previous  vessels  as  worthless  to  the  junk-heap. 
Twelve  millions  of  dollars  is  the  standard  cost  of 
one  of  these  vessels,  and  a  few  more  years  may 
double  even  this.  Equal  progress  has  been  made  in 
the  art  of  destroying  ships.  In  an  hour  of  actual 
conflict,  every  warship  will  be  sunk,  'captured, 
victorious,  or  run  away.  Shore  guns,  mines,  and 
torpedoes  now  forbid  the  entrance  of  any  battleship 


18  WAR  AND  WASTE 

into  any  hostile  port,  and  already  their  existence  is 
threatened  from  the  air.  Guns,  powder,  ball,  all 
have  moved  onward  since  the  days  of  Napoleon  in  un- 
fortunate parallelism  with  the  application  of  science 
in  all  other  directions  —  a  science  which  has  grown 
through  peace,  for  all  science  was  impossible  in  the 
dayswhen  war  was  the  chief  business  of  all  virile  men. 

Statesmen  willing  to  borrow,  on  the  plea  of  Pitt 
that  the  nation  belongs  to  the  living  generation,  on 
which  posterity  has  no  claim,  have  abounded  in  all 
times  and  under  all  forms  of  government.  For  one 
Turgot  planning  for  the  future  there  are  a  hundred 
Calownes  interested  only  in  the  present  expenditure. 
And  because  this  is  so,  the  outlook  is  very  dark  to- 
day for  debt-crushed  Europe.  Because  this  is  so, 
even  free  America  and  free  Canada  stand  to-day 
at  the  parting  of  the  ways,  and  the  easiest  way  is  that 
leading  toward  debt  and  waste.  It  is  easier  for  a 
nation,  as  for  a  man,  to  follow  the  lead  of  its  associ- 
ates than  to  strike  out  for  itself  toward  thrift, 
honesty,  and  prosperity. 

The  way  out,  the  only  way  out  so  far  as  America 
is  concerned,  is  to  raise  the  whole  matter  above  the 
level  of  personal  interest  and  partisanship.  We 
are  now  spending  more  than  $800,000  on  army  and 
navy;  more  than  $10,000  per  day,  for  example,  on 
smokeless  powder  alone.  No  one,  not  financially 


WAR  AND  WASTE  19 

interested,  can  believe  that  this  is  a  patriotic 
necessity.  No  one  familiar  with  the  facts  can  be- 
lieve that  there  is  any  war  before  us  unless  begun  by 
our  own  initiative.  Yet  there  is  no  one  who  can 
check  this  expense,  because  no  one  has  any  plan  as 
to  the  future,  nor  any  grasp  on  the  many  elements 
concerned.  The  President,  as  commander-in-chief 
of  the  army  and  navy,  cannot  reduce  his  command. 
In  his  Cabinet  is  a  secretary  of  war,  a  secretary  of 
the  navy,  with  no  secretary  of  economy,  of  sanitation, 
of  education,  of  national  morals,  of  internal  peace. 
The  danger  to  you  and  to  me  and  to  our  families, 
from  the  international  band  of  outlaws  called  white 
slavers,  is  infinitely  more  than  the  danger  of  any 
foreign  foe.  Yet  two  days  of  smokeless  powder 
costs  more  than  our  Government  can  afford  for  the 
suppression  of  this  most  horrible  of  all  evils.  We 
spend  more  than  two  thirds  of  our  annual  income 
on  military  affairs.  We  have  not  enough  to  go 
around  for  any  useful  purpose  whatever,  outside  of 
national  defense. 

In  national  defense  if  we  have  anything  at  all, 
whatever  we  need  should  be  of  the  best.  That  goes 
without  saying.  But  for  the  present  we  blunder 
along,  sometimes  under  the  dictation  of  the  arma- 
ment lobby,  sometimes  controlled  by  national  vanity, 
sometimes  following  merely  the  evil  example  of 


20  WAR  AND  WASTE 

England  and  Germany.  This  difference  obtains, 
however,  that  we  pay  for  what  we  get.  In  this 
regard  the  United  States  is  the  strongest  of  all  the 
great  "powers."  Her  credit  is  good,  and  it  is  not 
yet  true  that  with  her  "war  has  consumed"  all  "the 
fruits  of  progress."  But  our  military  expenditures 
are  outrunning  our  increase  in  national  wealth,  and 
the  final  end  of  this  policy  must  be  the  same  as 
in  Europe.  We  have  three  possibilities:  Peace 
through  the  crash  of  arms  and  the  destruction  of 
credit,  peace  through  international  exhaustion,  and 
peace  through  the  rise  of  public  opinion  and  insistence 
on  arbitration  in  the  settlement  of  international 
differences.  With  arbitration  these  differences 
would  mostly  cease.  International  differences  have 
very  rarely  been  causes  of  war.  Usually  they  have 
served  merely  as  pretexts.  If  they  cannot  be  thus 
used,  and  if  war  is  not  the  alternative  means  of 
settlement,  we  shall  rarely  hear  of  these  differences. 
The  only  excuse  for  war  is  that  it  is  a  means  of  settle- 
ment, however  crude,  horrible,  and  unsatisfactory. 
If  there  is  a  better  way,  easier,  quicker,  more  honour- 
able, there  will  not  often  be  any  difference  to  settle. 
"War,"  Disraeli  is  credited  with  saying  —  "war 
is  never  a  solution,  it  is  an  aggravation. "  Few  wars 
have  arisen  afresh  between  nations;  they  grow  mostly 
from  seeds  left  by  past  wars. 


WAR  AND  WASTE  21 

But  greater  than  the  waste  of  the  "earnings  of 
poor  men's  lives"  is  the  waste  of  life  itself.  It  is  a 
fundamental  fact  of  biology  that  the  laws  in  heredity 
which  apply  to  man  are  those  which  govern  the  lower 
animals  as  well.  "Like  the  seed  is  the  harvest"  — 
this  is  the  fundamental  law.  The  men  you  breed 
from  determine  the  future.  Heredity  runs  level. 
No  race  of  men  nor  animals  has  improved  save 
through  selection  of  the  best  for  parentage.  None 
has  fallen  save  through  the  choice  of  inferior  stock 
for  parentage.  Whatever  influence  may  cause  the 
destruction  of  the  strong,  the  brave,  the  courageous, 
the  enterprising  will  ensure  a  generation  which  shall 
show  these  qualities  in  lower  degree.  Rome  fell 
because  the  old  Roman  stock  was  for  the  most  part 
banished  or  exterminated.  There  was  no  other 
cause.  The  Romans  were  gone  and  that  was  the 
end  of  it;  while  the  sons  of  slaves,  camp-followers, 
scullions,  and  peddlers  filled  the  Eternal  City.  The 
Republic  fell  when  "Vir  gave  place  to  Homo,"  real 
men  in  Rome  to  mere  beings.  The  Empire  fell  when 
the  barbarians  filled  the  unoccupied  city,  unoccupied 
so  far  as  the  men  of  the  old  Roman  type  were  con- 
cerned. 

The  latest  historian  of  the  "Downfall  of  the 
Ancient  World,"  Dr.  Otto  Seeck,  of  Miinster,  tells 
us  how  after  the  wars  of  Marius  and  Sulla,  "only 


22  WAR  AND  WASTE 

cowards  remained,  and  from  their  brood  came  for- 
ward the  new  generations."  We  ask  no  other 
reason  for  the  disappearance  of  Greece.  Greek  art, 
Greek  philosophy,  Greek  literature,  the  perfection 
of  form  in  thought,  in  action,  in  speech  —  all  of  these 
were  impossible  save  to  men  of  Greek  blood;  and 
when  these  had  fallen  in  suicidal  war,  there  was  no 
longer  the  heredity  which  could  replace  them. 

Some  twenty  years  ago,  I  visited  the  city  of  No- 
va ra  in  northern  Italy.  South  of  the  town  was  a 
wheat-field  where  the  Sardinian  army  was  once 
encamped  and  from  which  they  were  driven  by  the 
Austrians.  From  the  field  the  Sardinians  fled  — 
you  can  still  trace  their  flight  by  the  marks  left  by 
bullet  and  by  cannon  ball  on  the  houses  —  down  the 
long  street  to  the  city  of  Novara.  Here  the  King, 
Charles  Albert,  sat  in  his  palace,  and  when  the  fleeing 
army  came  by  he  gave  up  his  throne  to  his  son, 
Victor  Emanuel.  History  tells  the  rest,  but  the 
significance  of  such  events  lies  not  in  the  fate  of  the 
kings,  nor  does  it  lie  in  the  fate  of  the  men,  nor  yet 
in  the  waste  of  their  lives,  nor  even  in  the  sorrows 
of  those  who  loved  them.  It  is  found  in  the  effect 
upon  the  race. 

On  the  battlefield  of  Novara  the  farmers  had 
ploughed  up  the  skulls  of  the  slain,  had  stacked  them 
up  until  they  formed  a  pyramid  some  fifteen  feet 


WAR  AND  WASTE  23 

high,  with  a  little  canopy  which  kept  off  the  rain. 
These  were  the  skulls  of  young  men  between  eigh- 
teen and  thirty-five  years  of  age,  young  men  from 
the  farms  and  shops  and  schools,  some  from  France, 
some  from  Italy,  the  rest  from  Austria.  And  as 
these  were,  according  to  custom,  the  best  among  the 
yeomanry,  so  in  their  homes  since  then  the  generations 
have  arisen  from  inferior  stock.  By  the  character 
and  fate  of  the  common  man  and  the  opportunity 
offered  to  him,  the  nations  must  be  judged.  On 
him  the  fate  of  the  nation  depends,  and  the  waste  of 
Novara  is  a  waste  which  is  enduring.  It  is  like 
cutting  the  roots  of  a  tree  while  its  flowers  and  fruit- 
age continue.  The  roots  of  to-day  determine  the 
fruitage  of  the  future.  Those  nations  who  have  lost 
their  young  men  in  war  have  in  so  far  checked  their 
own  development. 

Not  one  Novara  could  work  ruin  to  any  nation. 
But  no  Novara  ever  stood  alone.  Down  the  road  in 
Lombardy  is  the  little  town  of  Magenta.  You  know 
the  colour  we  call  Magenta,  the  hue  of  the  blood 
that  dyed  the  locust  trees  in  the  little  park,  the  blood 
that  stained  the  river  below  the  hard-fought  bridge. 
Here  the  French  came  up  from  the  west.  In  due 
time  the  Austrians  fled  from  the  bridge  to  the  park, 
from  the  park  down  the  long  street  toward  Milan, 
and  at  last  out  of  all  Lombardy.  Here  in  a  cloister 


24  WAR  AND  WASTE 

of  the  old  church  of  Magenta  you  will  find  the  pile  of 
skulls  —  skulls  of  brave  men.  You  can  know  it  by 
the  bullet  holes  which  the  spiders  for  half  a  century 
have  vainly  tried  to  heal. 

You  will  go  down  the  plains  of  Lombardy,  east- 
ward to  Desenzano,  on  the  Lake  of  Garda.  Near 
here  is  the  field  of  Solferino,  bloodiest  of  all,  where 
some  forty  thousand  killed  and  wounded  men  were 
left  by  the  cowardly  armies  for  three  days  on  the  field, 
untended  save  by  flies  and  mosquitoes.  It  was  here 
that  Henri  Dunant  of  Geneva,  a  tourist  in  Verona, 
organized  the  work  of  relief  which  grew  at  last  into 
the  Red  Cross  Society.  Dunant  was  almost  the  first 
to  see  a  battlefield  with  modern  eyes.  To  him  it  was 
not  a  field  of  glory  but  "a  European  calamity." 
He  died  at  Heiden  on  October  31,  1910,  but  not 
until  he  had  earned  the  Nobel  prize,  not  for  his  work 
for  peace,  but  for  doing  his  part  to  make  war  a  bit 
more  human  and  less  horrible. 

And  these  do  not  stand  alone.  Scarcely  a  town  in 
Italy  that  has  not  some  sort  of  battle  record.  I  like 
the  frank  Italian  way  of  showing  unshrinkingly  the 
spoils  of  war. 

But  there  are  other  piles  and  piles  of  skulls,  none 
the  less  significant  because  the  bones  are  buried. 
The  walls  of  Paris  tell  their  story,  Metz,  Worth,  and 
the  slaughter  field  of  Sedan.  Then  we  can  trace  our 


WAR  AND  WASTE  25 

lines  across  Germany;  Jena,  Leipzig,  Austerlitz  - 
names  called  glorious  in  the  history  of  the  slaughter 
of  young  men  —  Liitzen,  Bautzen,  Ulm,  Wagram, 
Hohenlinden.  Let  us  pass  them  all  to  recall  the 
grand  army  of  Moscow,  600,000  men,  the  finest  body 
of  men  that  ever  stood  in  line.  Then  let  us  recall  the 
blasts  of  winter,  the  burning  city,  the  lack  of  base 
of  supplies,  the  hatred  of  the  people  of  the  invaded 
country.  And  after  that  let  us  see,  with  the  histo- 
rian, the  pitiful  retreat  of  the  20,000  men  who  re- 
mained of  this  great  army.  The  historian  tells  us 
that: 

"Amidst  ever-deepening  misery  they  struggled  on, 
until  of  the  600,000  men  who  had  proudly  crossed  the 
Nieman  for  the  conquest  of  Russia,  only  20,000 
famished,  frost-bitten,  unarmed  spectres  staggered 
across  the  bridge  of  Korno  in  the  middle  of  Decem- 
ber." 

The  inevitable  result  of  all  this  must  be  the  loss  to 
the  nation  of  the  qualities  which  are  sought  for  in  the 
soldier.  It  leaves  the  nation  crippled,  une  nation 
blesses.  The  effect  does  not  appear  in  the  efface- 
ment  of  art  of  science  or  creative  imagination.  Men 
who  excel  in  these  regards  are  not  drawn  by  prefer- 
ence or  by  conscription  to  the  life  of  the  soldier. 
If  we  cut  the  roots  of  a  tree,  we  shall  not  affect,  for  a 
time  at  least,  the  quality  of  its  flower  or  fruit.  We 


26  WAR  AND  WASTE 

are  limiting  its  future  rather  than  changing  its 
present.  In  like  manner  does  war  affect  the  life  of 
the  nation.  It  limits  the  future  rather  than  checks 
the  present. 

Those  who  fall  in  war  are  the  young  men  of  the 
nations,  men  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  thirty- 
five;  they  are  the  men  of  courage,  alertness,  dash,  and 
recklessness,  who  value  their  lives  as  naught  in  the 
service  of  the  nation.  The  men  who  are  left  are,  for 
better  and  for  worse,  the  reverse  of  all  this,  and  it  is 
they  that  determine  what  the  future  of  the  nation 
shall  be.  They  hold  its  history  in  their  grasp. 

However  noble,  encouraging,  inspiring  the  history 
of  modern  Europe  may  be,  it  is  not  the  history 
we  would  have  the  right  to  expect  from  the  develop- 
ment of  its  original  elements.  It  is  not  the  history 
that  would  have  been  made  had  these  same  elements 
been  released  from  the  shadow  of  reversed  selection 
cast  by  fratricidal  war.  The  angle  of  divergence 
between  what  might  have  been  and  what  has  been  is 
measured  by  the  parentage  of  strong,  capable,  and 
courageous  men  slain  on  the  bloody  fields  of  glory. 

All  this  applies  not  to  one  nation  alone  nor  to  one 
group  of  nations,  but  in  like  degree  to  all  nations 
that  have  sent  forth  their  young  men  to  the  field  of 
slaughter.  As  it  was  with  Greece  and  Rome,  with 
France  and  Spain,  Mauretania  and  Turkestan,  so  has 


WAR  AND  WASTE  27 

it  been  with  Germany  and  England;  so  with  all 
nations  that  have  sent  forth  "the  best  they  breed " 
to  foreign  service,  while  retaining  cautious,  thrifty 
mediocrity  to  fill  up  the  ranks  at  home. 

Four  millions  of  men  fell  in  Napoleon's  campaigns. 
No  wonder  the  life  of  Europe  is  impoverished.  No 
wonder  that  France  is  a  wounded  nation,  as  are  all 
others  whose  men  were  caught  up  in  that  holocaust. 
Napoleon,  it  was  said,  "has  peopled  hell  with  the  elite 
of  Europe. "  Stacked  up  on  the  field,  as  at  Novara, 
their  skulls  would  make  a  pile  thirty  times  as  high  as 
our  own  Washington  monument.  To  this  cause  of 
reversed  selection  almost  alone  we  may  ascribe  the 
social  and  personal  deficiencies  of  the  common  folk 
of  Europe.  To  be  "  him  that  overcometh  "  one  must 
have  a  lineage  made  up  of  those  who  were  "captains 
of  their  fate"  and  "masters  of  their  soul"  in  their 
day  and  generation.  If  we  send  forth  the  best  we 
breed,  there  is  no  way  by  which  those  of  the  future 
shall  be  other  than  second  best. 

In  the  break-up  of  the  Roman  Empire,  no  prov- 
ince had  a  better  future  than  Hispania,  our  Spain, 
and  she,  like  others,  had  staked  and  lost  her  future 
in  war. 

"Against  the  credit  for  redeemed  souls,"  said,  in 
1620,  La  Puente,  the  Augustian  friar,  "I  set  the  cost 
of  armadas  and  the  sacrifice  of  soldiers  and  friars  sent 


28  WAR  AND  WASTE 

to  the  Philippines.  And  this  I  count  the  chief  loss. 
For  mines  give  silver,  and  forests  give  timber,  but 
only  Spain  gives  Spaniards,  and  she  may  give  so 
many  that  she  may  be  left  desolate  and  constrained 
to  bring  up  strangers'  children  instead  of  her  own." 

"This  is  Castile,"  says  another  writer.  "She 
makes  men  and  wastes  them."  "This  sublime  and 
terrible  phrase,"  says  Captain  Calkins,  "sums  up  the 
whole  of  Spanish  history. " 

In  his  charming  studies  of  "Feudal  and  Modern 
Japan,"  Mr.  Arthur  Knapp  mentions  again  and 
again  the  great  marvel  of  Japan's  military  prowess, 
as  shown  in  the  Chinese  War,  after  more  than  two 
hundred  years  of  peace.  It  has  been  even  more  con- 
clusively shown  in  the  Russo-Japanese  War  since 
Mr.  Knapp's  book  was  written.  His  astonishment 
was  that  after  more  than  six  generations  in  which 
military  drill  was  not  the  final  aim  of  each  young 
man,  the  virile  qualities  of  patience  and  courage 
were  found  unimpaired. 

In  the  light  of  the  reverse  of  this  condition  which 
we  have  been  considering  in  the  case  of  European 
nations,  we  can  readily  see  that  the  experience  of 
Japan  was  just  what  we  might  expect.  In  times  of 
peace  there  is  no  slaughter  of  the  strong,  no  sacrifice 
of  the  brave.  In  the  peaceful  struggle  for  existence, 
there  is  a  premium  placed  upon  these  virtues.  The 


WAR  AND  WASTE  29 

virile  and  the  brave  survive.  They  and  their  de- 
scendants are  not  wasted  on  the  battlefield.  It  is  the 
idle,  the  weak,  and  the  dissipated  that  go  to  the  wall. 
"What  won  the  battles  on  the  Yalu,  in  Korea  or 
Manchuria,"  says  Prof.  Inazo  Nitobe,  "was  the 
ghosts  of  our  fathers  guiding  our  hands  and  beating 
in  our  hearts. "  If  we  translate  this  from  the  lan- 
guage of  Shintoism  into  that  of  science,  we  find  it  a 
strong  testimony  to  the  fact  of  race-heredity,  the 
survival  of  the  strong  in  the  lives  of  their  self-reliant 
and  effective  sons.  The  shades  of  the  soldiers  who 
fell  before  Napoleon  are  not  guiding  the  hands 
or  beating  in  the  hearts  of  the  men  of  Europe 
to-day. 

If  after  two  hundred  years  or  even  twenty  years 
of  incessant  battle  Japan  should  remain  virile  and 
warlike,  that  would  indeed  be  a  marvel.  But  that 
marvel  the  world  has  never  seen.  It  is  doubtless 
true  that  military  traditions  are  most  persistent  with 
nations  most  frequently  engaged  in  war.  But  mili- 
tary traditions  and  the  physical  strength  to  gain 
victories  are  very  different.  Other  things  equal,  the 
nations  which  like  Japan  have  known  "the  old  Peace 
with  velvet-sandaled  feet"  are  most  likely  to  develop 
the  "strong  battalions"  on  which  victory  in  war  is 
most  likely  to  rest. 

What  now  of  Germany?     She  has  had  her  share 


30  WAR  AND  WASTE 

of  the  desolation  and  the  degradation  of  war.  It  is 
said  that  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War  the  population  of 
Germany  was  cut  down  from  16,000,000  to  6,000,000 
people.  It  is  said  that  not  before  1 870  was  Germany 
able  to  regain  the  ground  she  held  in  1618.  It  is, 
moreover,  claimed  that  while  Germany  is  military, 
she  is  not  warlike.  While  there  is  no  nation  so 
dominated  by  the  professional  soldier  with  his  medi- 
eval scorn  of  commerce,  science,  and  all  civilian 
things,  yet  there  is  virtually  not  a  man  in  the  Ger- 
man army  who  ever  saw  a  battle.  The  superiority 
of  Germany  lies  in  her  science,  her  industrial  art,  her 
commerce,  her  intensification  of  civilian  activities. 
Theevidenceof  the  havoc  of  war  is  not  so  clear  in  Ger- 
many as  in  most  other  lands  of  Europe.  Perhaps  as 
Doctor  Seeck  seems  to  think,  massacre  and  desolation 
destroyed  the  weak  as  often  as  the  strong.  Perhaps, 
again,  the  fact  of  universal  compulsory  education  and 
compulsory  industrial  training,  with  compulsory 
insurance  against  old  age,  has  reduced  the  visible 
number  of  unemployed  and  of  the  unemployable. 
The  factor  of  emigration  which  has  filled  the  great 
cities  of  the  new  world  with  young  Germans,  am- 
bitious and  energetic,  is  one  which  we  cannot  esti- 
mate in  comparison  with  the  effects  of  war.  When 
the  best  emigrate,  the  home  lands  become  impov- 
erished, but  emigration  gives  new  ideas  and  new 


WAR  AND  WASTE  31 

experiences.  The  loss  of  one  region  is  the  gain  of 
another,  and  the  gain  with  good  men  overbalances 
the  loss.  The  men  of  the  new  world  are  old-world 
men  who  have  learned  something  in  a  new  environ- 
ment, lost  something  perhaps  in  exchange  for  all 
that  is  gained,  but  in  the  long  run  the  new  advan- 
tages outweigh  the  old.  But  loss  which  is  loss  comes 
from  the  sacrifice  of  the  strong. 

What  shall  we  say  of  England  and  of  her  place  in 
the  history  of  war?  In  the  Norse  mythology,  it  was 
the  Mitgard  Serpent  which  reached  around  the  world, 
swallowed  its  own  tail,  and  held  the  world  together. 
England  has  made  this  a  British  world.  Her  young 
men  have  gone  to  all  regions  where  free  men  can 
live.  They  have  built  up  free  institutions  which  rest 
on  cooperation  and  compromise.  She  has  carried 
the  British  peace  to  all  barbarous  lands,  and  she  has 
made  it  possible  for  civilized  men  to  trade  and  pray 
with  savages.  "What  does  he  know  of  England, 
who  only  England  knows?"  For  the  activities  of 
Englishmen  have  been  greater  by  manifold  than 
within  the  little  island  from  which  Englishmen  set 
forth  to  inherit  the  earth. 

What  has  all  this  cost?  It  could  not  be  done 
unless  it  was  paid  for,  and  we  must  not  wonder  if 
such  strenuous  effort,  such  sacrifice  of  life  and  force, 
has  left  her  with  something  like  exhaustion. 


32  WAR  AND  WASTE 

There's  a  widow  in  Sleepy  Chester 

Who  mourns  for  her  only  son. 
There's  a  grave  by  the  Pabeng  River, 

A  grave  which  the  Burmans  shun. 

If  we  would  know  why  Chester  is  sleepy,  we  have 
only  to  turn  to  her  great  cathedral.  The  long  north 
side  of  her  red  sandstone  walls  tells  of  her  dead,  the 
world  over,  and  always  the  same  story.  Tablets 
to  the  memory  of  young  men,  gentlemen's  sons  from 
Eton  and  Rugby  and  Winchester  and  Harrow; 
scholars  from  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  from  Man- 
chester and  Birmingham  and  Liverpool,  who  have 
given  up  their  lives  in  some  petty  war  in  some  far-off 
country.  Their  bodies  rest  in  India,  Zululand,  in 
Burmah,  the  Transvaal.  In  England  only  are  they 
remembered,  men  who  should  have  been  the  makers 
of  empire.  This  has  led  Alfred  Noyes  to  say  to 
England: 

"It  is  only  my  dead  that  count," 
She  said,  and  she  says  to-day. 

These  names  are  recorded  by  the  score  in  every 
parish  church,  by  the  thousand  in  every  cathedral, 
and  the  churches  are  numbered  by  the  thousands. 
The  statement  that  in  every  parish  church  such 
tablets  may  be  found  might  be  questioned.  As 
a  test,  with  an  Oxford  friend  we  chose  a  solitary 
church  standing  almost  alone  on  a  bleak  plain  in 


WAR  AND  WASTE  33 

Hertfordshire,  Whitchurch,  once  celebrated  because 
it  employed  the  young  Handel  as  its  organist.  On 
opening  the  door  I  saw  a  tablet: 

"Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Thomas 
Henry,  eldest  son  of  Thomas  Hall 
Plummer,  Esquire,  of  this  Parish,  and 
Lieutenant  in  the  49th  regiment  of 
Bengal  National  Infantry.  He  died 
in  camp  while  serving  at  the  seige  of 
Moulton,  on  the  I4th  of  December, 
1848,  in  the  twenty-seventh  year  of 
his  age.  His  Sepoys  for  the  love  of 
him  bore  his  body  to  the  grave. 
This  tablet  was  erected  by  his 
brother  officers." 

Other  tablets  told  of  service  in  India,  but  this  met 
the  test,  and  this  is  typical. 

The  foreign  service  of  England  for  a  hundred  years 
has  furnished  careers  for  the  sons  of  the  squire  and 
the  gentleman.  For  a  century  Great  Britain  has 
sent  her  strongest  and  most  forceful  sons.  "Send 
forth  the  best  ye  breed,"  and  the  nation  breeds  from 
the  second  best. 

And  in  this  loss  of  fair  and  strong,  the  "unreturn- 
ing  brave,"  we  may  find  an  answer  to  some  of 
England's  most  desperate  problems. 

Where  is  the  country  squire  of  English  life  and 


34  WAR  AND  WASTE 

English  history?  Where  are  his  rosy-cheeked  and 
strong-limbed  daughters?  Where,  indeed,  is  the 
typical  John  Bull  of  the  time-honoured  cartoon? 
Why  is  it  that  three  or  four  millions  of  English- 
men are  unable  to  earn  a  decent  living,  or  any  living 
at  all,  in  England  to-day?  Why  is  it  that  these 
same  unemployed  are  found  unemployable  in  Canada, 
in  Australia,  or  wherever  they  may  go?  Why  is  it 
that  the  tendency  in  all  average  physical  standards 
is  downward,  while  the  standards  of  the  best  are 
growing  always  higher?  The  answer  lies  in  the 
reversed  selection  of  war.  Its  effects  are  found  in 
England  and  everywhere  else  where  strength  and 
courage  have  been  rewarded  by  glory  and  extinction. 
England  has  exchanged  her  country  squires  for  the 
memorial  tablet.  More  than  for  all  who  have  fallen 
in  battle,  or  were  wasted  in  the  camps,  England 
should  mourn  "the  fair  women  and  brave  men" 
that  should  have  been  descendants  of  her  strong  and 
manly  men.  If  we  may  personify  the  spirit  of  the 
nation,  England  should  most  grieve,  not  over  her 
unreturning  brave,  but  over  those  who  might  have 
been  but  never  were,  those  who  so  long  as  history 
lasts  can  never  be. 

We  have  fed  our  sea  for  a  thousand  years 

And  she  calls  us  still  unfed, 
Though  there's  never  a  wave  of  all  her  waves 

But  sweeps  o'er  our  British  dead. 


WAR  AND  WASTE  35 

We  have  strewed  our  best  to  the  wave's  unrest 

To  the  shark  and  the  sheering  gull, 
And  if  blood  be  the  price  of  Admiralty 

Lord  God,  we  paid  it  in  full. 

Walk  wide  of  the  Widow  of  Windsor, 

For  half  of  creation  she  owns, 
And  we've  bought  her  the  same  with  the  sword 
and  the  flame 

And  we've  salted  it  down  with  our  bones. 

O  thou,  whose  wounds  are  never  healed, 

Whose  weary  race  is  never  run, 
O  Cromwell's  England,  must  thou  yield, 

For  every  foot  of  ground,  a  son? 

Where  are  the  brave,  the  strong,  the  fleet, 

The  flower  of  England's  chivalry? 
Wild  grasses  are  their  winding  sheet, 

And  sobbing  waves  their  threnody. 

By  the  law  of  probability  as  developed  by  Quetelet, 
it  is  claimed  that  there  will  appear  in  each  generation 
the  same  number  of  potential  poets,  artists,  investi- 
gators, patriots,  athletes,  and  superior  men  of  each 
degree.  This  law,  however,  involves  the  theory  of 
continuity  of  paternity,  that  in  each  generation  a 
practically  equal  percentage  of  men  of  superior 
mentality  will  survive  to  take  the  responsibilities 
of  parenthood.  Otherwise  this  law  becomes  subject 
to  the  action  of  another  law,  that  of  reversed  selec- 
tion, or  the  biological  law  of  "diminishing  returns." 
In  other  words,  breeding  from  an  inferior  stock 
brings  race  degeneration,  and  such  breeding  is  the 


36  WAR  AND  WASTE 

sole  agency  of  such  degeneration;  as  selection, 
natural  or  artificial,  along  one  line  or  another  is  the 
sole  agency  for  race  progress.  And  all  laws  of 
probabilities  and  averages  are  subject  to  a  still 
higher  law,  the  primal  law  of  biology,  which  no  cross- 
current of  life  can  check  or  modify:  Like  the  seed  is 
the  harvest;  almost  alike  but  never  quite,  but  on  the 
whole  always  following  the  lead.  There  is  in  fact  no 
law  of  Quetelet,  save  this:  Under  like  conditions 
heredity  runs  alike,  almost  alike,  but  with  like  varia- 
tions. When  conditions  change,  so  change  the  pro- 
ducts of  heredity. 

What  shall  we  say  of  our  own  country,  with  her 
years  of  peace,  and  her  two  great  civil  wars,  the 
struggle  of  children  with  their  parents,  of  brothers 
with  brothers? 

It  may  be  that  war  is  sometimes  justified.  It  is 
sometimes  inevitable,  whether  necessary  or  not.  It 
has  happened  once  in  our  history,  that  "every  drop 
of  blood  drawn  by  the  lash  must  be  drawn  again  by 
the  sword." 

It  cost  us  700,000  lives  of  young  men  to  get  rid 
of  slavery.  I  saw  not  long  ago  in  Maryland  one 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  these  young  men.  There 
are  some  12,000  acres  filled  with  them  on  the  fields 
of  the  South.  And  this  number,  almost  a  million, 
North  and  South,  was  the  best  that  the  nation  could 


WAR  AND  WASTE  37 

bring.  North  and  South  alike,  the  men  were  in 
dead  earnest,  each  believing  that  his  view  of  state 
rights  and  of  national  authority  was  founded  on  the 
solid  rock  of  righteousness  and  fair  play.  North 
and  South,  the  nation  was  impoverished  by  the  loss. 
The  gaps  they  left  are  filled  to  all  appearance. 
There  are  relatively  few  of  us  left  to-day  in  whose 
hearts  the  scars  of  fifty  years  ago  are  still  unhealed. 
But  a  new  generation  has  grown  up  of  men  and 
women  born  since  the  war.  They  have  taken  the 
nation's  problems  into  their  hands;  but  theirs  are 
hands  not  so  strong  or  so  clean  as  though  the  men 
that  are  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  men  that 
might  have  been.  The  men  that  died  in  "the  weary 
time"  had  better  stuff  in  them  than  the  father  of  the 
average  man  of  to-day. 

Those  states  which  lost  most  of  their  strong  young 
blood,  as  Virginia,  Louisiana,  the  Carolinas,  will  not 
gain  the  ground  they  lost,  not  for  centuries,  perhaps 
never. 

Doctor  Venable,  president  of  the  University  of 
North  Carolina,  told  me  not  long  ago  that  one  half 
the  alumni  of  that  college  up  to  1865  were  in  the 
Civil  War.  One  third  of  these  were  slain.  We  can 
never  measure  our  actual  loss  nor  determine  how  far 
the  men  that  are  fall  short  of  the  men  that  might 
have  been. 


38  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Dr/Hans  Gadow,  of  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
who  lately  visited  the  United  States,  told  me  that  the 
most  vivid  impression  he  got  in  all  his  travels  from 
Boston  to  San  Francisco  and  to  Mexico  came  from  a 
chance  statement  of  a  friend  in  Boston,  that  he 
belonged  to  the  Sixty-ninth  Regiment  of  Massachu- 
setts Volunteers.  It  was,  indeed,  a  wonder  that  this 
little  state,  with  less  than  half  a  million  people, 
should  have  sent  69,000  men  into  the  Civil  War 
because  they  believed  that  the  war  was  just.  This 
gave  an  impression  of  the  moral  earnestness  in- 
volved in  that  struggle,  which  he  had  gained  in  no 
other  way. 

There  were  in  fact  159,000  men  who  enlisted  in  the 
sixty-nine  Massachusetts  regiments.  It  took  at 
times  2,500  men  to  fill  the  ranks,  to  keep  in  each 
regiment  its  full  quota  of  a  thousand  men.  We 
may  recall  Colonel  Halpine's  rhyme  of  "the  thousand 
and  thirty-seven,"  showing  how,  at  the  banquet  of 
the  officers,  there  were  "the  remnant,  just  eleven," 
where  once 

Twinkled  a  thousand  bayonets 
And  the  swords  were  thirty-seven. 

Edward  H.  Clement  uses  these  striking  words: 
"Ever  since  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  or  rather 
its  last  quarter,  the  lamentation  has  been  heard: 
Where  are  the  poets  of  yesterday?  Where  are  the 


WAR  AND  WASTE  39 

'hundred  Boston  orators'?  Where  are  the  his- 
torians, the  philosophers,  the  political  leaders,  the 
moral  reformers  whom  the  whole  country  and  the 
world  itself  gladly  followed  in  the  liberalizing  of 
thought  and  of  religion  itself? 

"In  the  light  of  emphasis  ...  on  the  de- 
generation of  nations  through  their  glorious  wars, 
answer  might  well  be  sought  in  the  roll  of  honour  of 
Harvard  Memorial  Hall.  The  price  was  worth 
paying,  no  doubt.  At  all  events,  the  ones  who  gave 
their  lives  in  the  Civil  War  most  certainly  thought 
so.  But  the  price  was  exacted  all  the  same.  There 
stand  the  names  of  those  who,  but  for  this  sacrifice, 
might  have  continued  the  Glory  of  Boston  as  it  was 
in  all  the  higher  reaches  of  the  intellectual  life,  in 
national  politics  and  in  social  advance.  In  their 
stead  we  have  been  fain  to  put  up  with  —  well,  what 
we  have." 

Through  all  time  war  has  told  the  same  story. 

Sophocles  once  said,  two  thousand  years  ago: 
"  War  does  not  of  choice  destroy  bad  men,  but  good 
men  ever." 

Schiller  said :  "Der  Krieg  verschlingt  die  Besten." 
(War  devours  the  best.) 

An  old  French  proverb  says  the  same:  "Ce  sont 
toujours  les  memes,  qui  se  font  tuer."  (They  are 
always  the  same  who  get  themselves  killed.) 


40  WAR  AND  WASTE 

In  our  Civil  War,  Captain  Brownell  tells  us  of 

The  deeper  green  of  the  sod 

Where  we  left  the  bravest  of  us. 

John  Esten  Cooke,  in  Virginia,  when  Pelham  fell 
at  Kelly's  Ford,  calls  out: 

O  band  in  the  pine  wood  cease, 
Cease  with  your  splendid  call; 

The  living  are  brave  and  noble, 
The  dead  are  the  bravest  of  all. 

In  Scotland: 

Proudly  they  march,  but  each  Cameron  knows 
He  may  tread  the  heather  no  more. 

Again,  in  India,  Bartholomew  Dowling: 

Cut  off  from  the  land  that  bore  us, 

Betrayed  by  the  land  we  find, 
When  the  brightest  are' gone  before  us 
And  the  dullest  are  left  behind. 

The  same  motive,  the  same  lesson  lasts  through  all 
ages,  and  it  finds  keen  expression  in  the  words  of  the 
wisest  man  of  our  early  national  history,  Benjamin 
Franklin,  "Wars  are  not  paid  for  in  war  time:  the 
bill  comes  later." 


CHAPTER   II 
FORECLOSING  THE   MORTGAGE  ON  WAR 

WAR  is  dying.    It  dies  because  it  cannot  pay 
its   way.     It  dies   because,  through  the 
spread  of  education  and  the  demands  of 
commerce,  no  part  of  the  civilized  world  can  be  suf- 
fered to  engage  in  a  life  and  death  struggle  with  any 
other  part.     The    nations    are   no  longer  separate 
entities  but  each  is  a  part  in  a  unified  whole  to  which 
international  war  is  mischievous  and  hateful. 

In  his  clever  poem,  "The  Peace  of  Dives,"  Mr. 
Rudyard  Kipling  tells  us  the  story  of  the  passing  of 
war.  It  seems  that  Dives,  wicked,  rich,  and  in 
Torment,  asked  for  release,  offering  in  exchange  to 
bring  peace  to  the  world.  So  he  went  out  among 
the  nations  selling  the  costliest  of  human  toys, 
"sea-power"  and  land-power,  and  "the  dry  decreeing 
blade."  The  nations  bought  freely,  pledging  the 
future  for  all  sorts  of  weapons,  but  were  so  tied  up  at 
last  in  the  bonds  of  debt  that  none  of  them  could 
fight.  Thus  Dives  brought  peace  to  the  world,  and 
such  peace  we  have  with  us  to-day. 

41 


42  WAR  AND  WASTE 

We  understand,  of  couse,  that  Kipling's  story  is 
but  a  parable.  The  rich  man  was  not  wicked,  but 
sturdy,  honest,  and  long-headed.  His  name  was  not 
Dives,  and  he  was  not  in  Torment.  His  name  was 
Mayer  and  he  lived  in  a  narrow,  seven-story,  high- 
gabled  house  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main.  From  the 
swinging  red  shield  of  his  pawnbroker's  shop  he 
got  the  name  of  "Rothschild,"  and  the  story  of  his 
rise  to  power  and  that  of  his  successors  is  the  story 
of  the  passing  of  war. 

It  was  a  strange  period  in  which  he  lived,  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  that  period  we  have 
the  effective  rise  of  popular  government.  With  this 
came  peace  within  the  nations,  the  extension  of 
education,  the  rise  of  science  and  of  its  double,  me- 
chanical invention,  and  the  great  increase  in  the 
wealth  of  the  people. 

When  representative  government  was  established, 
a  nation  as  such  could  borrow  money.  Kings  had 
been  poor  pay.  The  pledges  of  parliaments,  however, 
were  safe  investments.  The  chief  business  of  nations 
was  still  war,  and  diplomacy  was  its  handmaid. 
By  means  of  secret  deals,  artificial  friendships,  and 
artificial  enmities,  diplomacy  could  spy  out  the  land. 
It  could  find  places  where  war  would  be  safe  and 
profitable  and  it  could  find  pretexts  to  begin  war 
with  good  grace.  Wars  have  been  rarely  fought 


FORECLOSING  MORTGAGE  ON  WAR  43 

for  causes.  Mostly  diplomacy  has  offered  only 
pretexts. 

Meanwhile  science  made  war  more  and  more 
effective  and  vastly  more  costly.  Warships  changed 
from  wooden  tubs  costing  perhaps  $12,000  to  gigantic 
floating  fortresses  worth  $12,000,000,  with  all  else 
in  proportion.  The  people  could  not  pay  for  these 
things,  and  ran  into  debt  for  them,  England  first, 
and  after  her  all  the  other  nations,  each  in  its  degree. 
Here  was  Dives's  opportunity.  The  great  house  of 
Rothschild,  its  five  branches  knowing  no  country, 
was  prepared  to  take  a  nation  into  pawn,  all  for  a 
moderate  percentage,  "absorbing"  its  bonds  and 
placing  them  where  they  would  "do  the  most  good. " 
Allied  with  this  house  as  partners  or  as  rivals  in  the 
same  business  of  giant  "pawnbroking, "  were  a  dozen 
other  similar  establishments,  and  little  by  little  into 
the  hands  of  this  group,  consisting  of  the  Roths- 
childs and  the  great  joint-stock  banks — which  now 
excel  them  in  resources  and  power  —  and  constitut- 
ing the  so-called  "Unseen  Empire  of  Finance,"  fell 
the  control  of  Europe. 

To  control  a  railway  it  is  not  necessary  to  own  it, 
only  to  administer  its  debts.  The  same  is  true  of  na- 
tions. Thus  it  came  about  that  in  all  matters  of  war, 
peace,  and  finance,  the  international  bankers  had  the 
last  word.  At  first,  the  control  was  more  or  less  a 


44  WAR  AND  WASTE  , 

matter  of  dominating  personality,  but  in  time,  with 
the  vast  increase  in  the  complexity  of  business  rami- 
fications, it  has  naturally  become  more  and  more 
impersonal  and  automatic.  Lord  Rosebery  has  said 
that  "Royalty  is  no  longer  a  political  but  a  social 
function. "  This  is  another  way  of  saying  that  the 
will  of  no  individual  is  now  supreme  as  opposed  to  the 
uncommon  interests  of  the  people.  With  the  eco- 
nomic growth  of  the  last  thirty  years  has  come  a 
parallel  change  in  financial  domination. 

As  war  is  now  mainly  a  matter  of  finance,  armies 
and  navies  being  mere  incidents  as  compared  with 
financial  reserves,  the  bankers  still  have  the  last 
word.  No  international  struggle,  accident  aside, 
can  break  out  until  they  give  the  signal.  In  our 
belief,  whatever  the  apparent  provocation  of  noisy 
speech  or  hectoring  diplomacy,  we  shall  never  see 
another  war  among  the  great  nations  of  Europe. 
There  is  too  much  at  stake.  War  is  a  disturbance 
of  all  normal  relations.  It  is  a  sort  of  world  sickness, 
local  in  its  inception,  but  likely  to  spread  to  other 
parts  of  the  social  organism.  A  great  war  is  a  great 
defeat.  It  means  ruin  to  the  victor  as  well  as  to  the 
loser.  Under  present  conditions  there  can  be  no 
such  thing  as  victory,  and  neutrals  must  share  with 
the  others  in  the  settlement  of  loss. 

Banking,  according  to  Norman  Angell,  is  "pro- 


FORECLOSING  MORTGAGE  ON  WAR  45 

viding  the  economic  and  social  organism  with  sensory 
nerves,  by  which  damage  to  any  part,  or  to  any 
function,  can  be  felt  and,  thanks  to  such  feeling, 
avoided."  The  influence  of  sound  banking  is 
therefore  everywhere  and  automatically  opposed 
to  war.  To  the  modern  banker,  as  to  Benjamin 
Franklin,  "there  never  was  a  good  war  nor  a  bad 
peace." 

In  the  last  hundred  years  every  nation  has  had  its 
statesmen,  representative  of  the  people,  ready  to 
pledge  all  futures  for  the  sake  of  present  advantage, 
real  or  apparent.  Especially  have  they  been  willing 
to  go  to  any  lengths  of  debt  or  taxation  in  the  interest 
of  standing  armies  and  of  naval  greatness.  And  the 
net  result  is  that  the  war  debt  of  the  world  for 
borrowed  money,  practically  all  used  for  war  pur- 
poses, amounts  to  nearly  $37,000,000,000.  This  sum 
is  expressed  in  the  "Endless  Caravan  of  Ciphers," 
which  carries  no  meaning  to  the  average  taxpayer 
until  he  feels  its  pressure  in  the  rising  cost  of  living 
and  in  his  own  difficulties  in  making  both  ends  meet. 
The  interest  charges  of  the  world  on  its  national 
bonded  debt  are  about  $1,500,000,000  a  year,  and 
about  $2,500,000,000  are  expended  yearly  on  stand- 
ing armies  and  on  battleships.  If  we  were  to  sell  out 
the  entire  holdings  of  the  United  States,  capitalize 
the  returns,  and  put  the  whole  sum  at  interest  at 


46  WAR  AND  WASTE 

4  per  cent.,  it  would  just  about  keep  up  the  military 
expenses  of  the  world  in  time  of  peace. 

Through  our  attempts  to  keep  war  going,  after  its 
prosecution  had  ceased  to  be  financially  profitable 
to  anybody  (to  say  nothing  of  moral  or  social  values), 
we  have  carried  civilization  well  toward  bankruptcy. 
"We  have  long  since,"  says  the  editor  of  Life, 
"passed  the  simple  or  kindergarten  stage  of  living 
beyond  our  means;  we  are  now  engaged  in  living 
beyond  the  means  of  generations  to  come." 

Let  me  ^illustrate  by  a  supposititious  example. 
A  nation  has,  let  us  say,  an  income  and  expenditure 
of  $100,000,000.  It  raises  this  sum  by  taxation  of 
some  sort  and  thus  lives  within  its  means.  But  this 
hundred  millions  is  equal  to  the  interest  on  a  much 
larger  sum,  $2,500,000,000.  Let  us  suppose  that 
instead  of  paying  a  hundred  millions  year  by  year 
for  expenses,  we  use  this  as  the  interest  on  a  large 
capital.  By  borrowing  we  have  immediately  at  hand 
a  sum  of  twenty-five  times  as  great.  The  interest 
on  this  sum  is  the  same  as  the  annual  expense  account. 
We  have  then  borrowed  $2,500,000,000,  paying  the 
interest  charges  of  $100,000,000  a  year.  While 
paying  these  charges  we  have  the  principal  to  live  on 
for  a  generation.  Half  of  it  will  meet  current  expenses 
for  a  dozen  years.  The  other  half  is  at  once  available 
for  national  purposes,  for  dockyards,  wharves,  for- 


FORECLOSING  MORTGAGE  ON  WAR  47 

tresses,  public  buildings,  and  above  all  for  army  and 
navy  expansion.  Meanwhile  in  our  country  —  no 
nation  stands  quite  still  —  twelve  years  of  invention 
and  commerce  have  doubled  the  national  income. 
This  gives  us  another  hundred  million  which  may  be 
capitalized  in  the  same  way,  another  twenty-five 
hundred  million  borrowed.  And  all  borrowings  be- 
come war  debt,  because  the  standing  army  and  the 
navy  take  the  lion's  share.  Were  it  not  for  war  and 
war  preparations,  the  other  expenses  of  government 
would  have  been  everywhere  met  without  permanent 
indebtedness. 

In  the  fashion  here  indicated  France  has  built  up 
her  war  debt  of  $6,000,000,000,  and  most  other 
nations  of  Europe  have  followed  the  same  example. 
The  system  of  borrowing  then  extends  through  the 
body  politic;  individuals, corporations, municipalities^ 
all  live  on  their  principal,  leaving  debt  and  interest 
for  future  generations  to  pay.  And  by  this  means 
one  and  all  finally  pass  into  the  control  of  their 
creditors.  The  nations  of  Europe  have  no  inde- 
pendent existence,  they  are  all  "provinces  of  the 
Unseen  Empire  of  Finance. "  What  will  be  the  end, 
no  one  can  say.  There  is  a  steady  growth  of  "un- 
rest" among  the  taxpayers  of  the  world.  There 
would  be  a  still  more  violent  "unrest"  could  pos- 
terity be  heard  from.  And  in  its  time  posterity  can 


48  WAR  AND  WASTE 

save  itself  from  utter  ruin  only  by  new  inventions  and 
new  exploitations  or  by  a  frugality  of  administration 
of  which  no  nation  gives  an  example  to-day. 

The  present  complex  condition,  incongruous  as 
well  as  disconcerting,  is  apparently  a  necessary  phase 
of  the  passing  of  war,  a  world-process  involved  in 
the  change  from  the  rule  of  force  to  that  of  law. 
The  power  of  old  tradition  keeps  alive  the  sinuous 
diplomacy  of  Europe,  with  its  use  of  warships  as 
counters  in  its  games,  and  its  use  of  war  scares  as 
means  to  force  the  people  to  build  the  warships. 
We  still  have  the  Deferred  Payment  and  the  Indirect 
Tax,  the  means  by  which  an  outworn  statecraft 
extorts  money  from  the  people.  We  have  all 
interests  of  commerce  totally  and  openly  opposed 
to  war,  and  all  interests  of  finance  quietly  opposed 
to  all  war  which  does  not  pay.  We  have  the  mur- 
derous cost  of  the  whole  thing  at  all  times,  with  the 
final  certainty  that  the  perfection  of  our  monstrous 
implements  will  never  allow  any  sort  of  war  to  pay, 
while  the  alternative  of  "Armed  Peace"  is  equally 
impossibly  expensive.  We  have  also  the  growth  of 
international  relations,  of  the  spirit  of  mutual  under- 
standing, the  development  of  international  law,  the 
extension  of  arbitration  and  our  own  emergence  from 
the  medieval  darkness  when  war  was  deemed  natural 
and  good,  an  institution  to  be  cherished  for  its  own 


FORECLOSING  MORTGAGE  ON  WAR  49 

sake.  Lastly,  the  bankers  have  given  ample  evi- 
dence of  their  power,  for  example,  in  the  Morocco 
affair.  They  have  long  since  skimmed  off  the  cream 
of  the  international  loan  business.  There  is  little 
gain  to  them  in  further  extension  of  the  policy. 
And  so  war  is  dying,  self-slain  by  the  costly  weapons 
science  has  forged  for  it,  and  it  now  remains  for 
finance  to  give  it  a  decent  and  fitting  burial. 

The  way  out  of  war  will  open,  the  world  over,  with 
the  enlightenment  of  public  opinion,  with  the  exten- 
sion of  international  law,  and  the  perfection  of  the 
international  courts  at  The  Hague.  The  machinery  of 
conciliation  is  created  by  public  opinion;  and  with  its 
more  perfect  adjustment,  the  force  of  public  opinion 
behind  it  will  grow  steadily  more  and  more  insistent. 
Little  by  little  war  will  be  erased  from  the  possibili- 
ties. As  the  years  go  by  its  crude  and  costly  con- 
clusions become  less  and  less  acceptable  and  the 
victories  of  peace  become  more  and  more  welcome 
as  well  as  more  stable. 

The  fact  that  a  better  way  of  composing  differences 
exists  is,  of  itself,  a  guarantee  that  no  serious  dif- 
ferences shall  arise;  for,  as  a  rule,  wars  do  not  arise 
from  the  alleged  "causes  of  war."  The  "causes" 
assigned  are  almost  wholly  mere  pretexts  after  war 
has  been  determined  on.  "Affairs  of  honour" 
between  nations  are  worthy  of  no  more  respect  than 


5o  WAR  AND  WASTE 

"affairs  of  honour"  among  men.  In  either  case,  an 
adequate  remedy  is  found  in  a  few  days  or  months 
of  patience  and  in  the  adjustments  of  disinterested 
friends  whose  judgments  are  unbiased  by  the  passion 
of  the  moment.  This  we  call  arbitration,  and  its 
supreme  virtue  with  nations  as  with  individuals  lies 
in  its  being  unlimited. 

In  our  own  country  at  present,  there  opens  a  door 
of  escape  from  the  waste  of  war  preparation.  Tak- 
ing the  Tariff  Commission  as  a  model,  we  should 
have  a  High  Commission  of  civilian  statesmen  to 
determine  exactly  how  we  stand  in  regard  to  war. 
Let  these  men  ascertain  what  our  possible  enemies 
are  and  what  is  our  actual  need  in  the  way  of  national 
defense.  We  need  not  go  very  far  afield  to  find  out 
what  men  should  be  chosen  to  serve  in  this  capacity. 
The  Peace  Commission  already  provided  by  Con- 
gress, but  thus  far  left  in  abeyance,  could  be  used 
to  this  end.  It  is  unworthy  of  our  ideals  and  of  our 
best  history  that  we  should  go  on  blindly  spending 
$800,000  every  day  on  army  and  navy,  with  nearly 
half  as  much  more  in  pensions  and  on  interest, 
simply  to  follow  the  confessedly  evil  examples  of 
Great  Britain  and  Germany.  It  is  unreasonable  to 
seek  for  ideal  perfection  of  national  defense,  unless 
it  can  be  proved  that  our  condition  demands  such 
perfection.  And  it  is  criminal  that  we  should  expend 


FORECLOSING  MORTGAGE  ON  WAR    51 

vast  sums  on  warships  and  armament  on  the  advice 
of  interested  parties  alone.  Whatever  may  be  the 
fact  at  our  national  capital,  we  have  abundant  evi- 
dence that  there  exists  in  the  world  no  lobby  more 
powerful  than  the  dockyard-armament  lobbies  of 
Great  Britain  and  of  Germany.  The  naval  and 
military  appropriations  of  Europe  represent  the 
demands  of  these  syndicates,  not  the  actual  needs  of 
the  people  or  the  nations. 

A  High  Commission,  such  as  is  suggested,  could 
find  out  the  truth,  could  indicate  the  path  of  safety 
and  the  path  of  economy.  To  reduce  our  military 
expenses  to  our  actual  needs  in  America  would  go  far 
to  settle  for  all  time  the  war  problem  of  debt-cursed 
Europe. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  PERENNIAL  BOGEY  OF  WAR 

IT  IS  an  open  secret,  a  very  open  one,  that 
springtide  war  scares  have  but  one  purpose, 
the  extension  of  our  already  monstrous  mili- 
tary and  naval  appropriations.  The  real  object 
of  attack  is  found  in  Congress.  When  the  victory 
there  is  won,  the  appropriations  made,  another 
cipher  added  to  the  "endless  caravan"  of  waste, 
there  is  no  external  sign  of  jubilation.  Those  con- 
cerned put  their  pasteboard  armies  back  into  the  box 
and  settle  down  quietly  to  the  business  of  spending 
until  the  annual  budget  is  made  up  again. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  most  powerful 
lobby  in  the  world  is  that  employed  by  the  great 
armament  builders  of  England  and  Germany.  It  is 
equally  plain  that  these  huge  rival  war  trusts  con- 
sciously and  purposely  play  into  each  other's  hands. 
The  war  scare  as  promulgated  through  the  "Armor- 
Plate  Press"  of  these  countries  is  the  chief  agency 
for  affecting  public  opinion  and  controlling  the 
action  of  Reichstag  and  Parliament.  The  greater 

52 


THE  PERENNIAL  BOGEY  OF  WAR  53 

and  more  imminent  the  danger,  the  louder  the 
journalistic  noise,  the  greater  the  appropriations  are 
likely  to  be.  But  when  one  remembers  that  the 
financial  resources  of  all  the  nations  concerned  are 
already  strained  to  the  limit  of  exhaustion  by  war 
expenditures  in  time  of  peace,  and  this  in  spite  of 
the  interrelations  and  mutual  dependence  of  the 
civilized  world  which  render  war  impossible,  one 
can  see  no  reality  in  these  clamours.  They  would  be 
simply  ridiculous  were  it  not  for  their  malicious 
efficiency  in  wasting  the  substance  of  the  people. 

Except  as  a  result  of  accidental  clash  in  uncon- 
trollable war  machinery,  international  war  is  already 
impossible.  Even  these  war  schemers  do  not  want 
war.  All  they  care  for  is  appropriations.  And  as 
wolves  wear  sheep's  clothing  at  times,  so  do  these 
monstrous  war  agencies  claim  to  be  the  true  pro- 
moters of  peace. 

An  analysis  of  the  war  lobby  of  Europe  will  show 
that,  besides  the  war  syndicates,  their  stockholders 
in  and  out  of  office,  their  employees  in  and  out  of 
office,  and  their  subsidized  journals;  besides  the 
group  of  contractors,  adventurers,  and  ghouls  who 
make  money  out  of  war;  besides  that  part  of  the  army 
and  the  navy  which  is  anxious  above  all  things  for 
preferment  or  for  the  testing  of  war  implements,  we 
must  count  a  vast  number  of  others,  more  or  less 


54  WAR  AND  WASTE 

allied  with  these,  acting  consciously  or  unconsciously 
with  the  war  lobby,  throwing  all  their  influence  on 
the  side  of  militarism  and  the  favouring  of  all  schemes 
of  spoliation,  savagery,  and  waste.  The  caste  spirit, 
strong  in  England  and  dominant  in  Germany,  is 
ever  and  in  all  nations  an  incentive  to  war.  It  is 
claimed  in  each  nation  as  a  matter  of  course  that  all 
its  war  expenditures  are  solely  for  necessary  national 
defense.  And,  as  a  matter  of  course,  in  each  nation, 
no  one  believes  this  statement  of  the  other  nations. 
Thus  do  the  armament  pirates  play  into  each  other's 
hands. 

This  chapter  is  devoted  to  a  discussion  of  our  own 
war  scares  and  to  the  foundations  (if  the  word  can  be 
used  for  things  so  ephemeral)  on  which  they  rest. 

And  at  the  start,  we  may  notice  in  passing  that  no 
war  scares  originate  along  our  Canadian  border. 
There  are  no  soldiers  there,  no  ships,  no  guns. 
There  have  been  none  for  nearly  a  century.  Not 
being  armed,  the  men  on  both  sides  behave  like  nor- 
mal people,  and  there  is  nothing  to  build  a  war 
scare  on.  The  border  is  perfectly  defended;  its 
defense  is  the  mere  fact  of  peace. 

Because  no  other  nation  could,  by  the  most  violent 
stretch  of  imagination,  be  regarded  as  a  military 
opponent,  Germany  and  Japan  are  forced  into  the 
role  of  international  villain.  When  we  ask  why 


THE  PERENNIAL  BOGEY  OF  WAR  55 

this  country  should  spend  millions  in  the  fortification 
of  Panama  and  Hawaii,  we  are  confronted  with  the 
secret  schemes  of  Germany  and  Japan.  Germany, 
intoxicated  with  prosperity,  revolts  at  our  Monroe 
Doctrine;  Japan,  intoxicated  with  success,  is  eager 
for  revenge  on  account  of  the  trades  unions  of  San 
Francisco.  And  so  we  squander  our  money,  eight 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  day,  besides 
interest,  pensions,  and  waste  of  men's  time,  that  we 
may  not  be  caught  napping  when  these  evil  designs 
mature. 

We  know,  of  course,  that  there  is  nothing  in  this  — 
that  there  has  never  been  anything  in  it,  that  there 
are  no  evil  designs,  that  nothing  Germany  or  Japan 
have  done  or  can  do  constitutes  a  "menace,"  and 
that  any  injury  they  might  inflict  would  rebound 
doubly  on  themselves. 

With  Germany,  our  public  relations  are  most 
friendly  and  they  have  always  been  so.  We  are  not 
concerned  in  any  secret  understanding  to  her  disad- 
vantage. We  have  not  blocked  her  Bagdad  railway 
nor  opposed  the  extension  of  her  influence  anywhere. 
Nearly  one  fourth  of  our  people  are  of  German  origin. 
In  our  educational  traditions,  Germany  has  largely 
replaced  England.  A  very  large  share  of  German 
commerce  is  with  the  port  of  New  York.  But  it  is 
said  that  our  Monroe  Doctrine,  acceptable  enough 


56  WAR  AND  WASTE 

to  Great  Britain,  is  offensive  to  Germany.  She  may 
some  time  want  a  coaling  station  on  the  Caribbean 
Sea.  Perhaps  the  petty  island  of  St.  Thomas  may 
be  sold  to  her  for  that  purpose.  She  may  hope  to 
dismember  Brazil,  taking  from  her  the  southern 
states,  in  which  there  is  already  a  thrifty  German 
population.  But  nothing  of  this  has  any  foundation 
in  reality.  There  is  no  evidence  of  any  desire  of  the 
Germans  in  Brazil  to  escape  from  Brazilian  juris- 
diction. Even  should  an  independent  German- 
Brazilian  state  become  possible,  it  would  ally  itself 
with  Argentina  or  Uruguay,  rather  than  seek  shelter 
under  the  spiked  helmet  of  German  imperialism. 
The  caste-ridden,  debt-ridden  domination  of  Prussia 
is  not  loved  by  Germans  abroad,  nor  by  Germans  at 
home.  Of  all  the  memories  of  the  Fatherland,  the 
expatriated  German  dwells  with  least  pleasure  on  the 
distinctions  of  caste  and  the  exaltation  of  the  army. 

On  the  Pacific  Ocean,  Japan  has  to  fill  the  role  of 
disturber  of  the  peace.  To  be  sure,  Japan  is  a  small 
nation  of  poor  people,  and  people  who  have  always 
been  especially  friendly  to  our  own.  Her  population 
is  not  much  more  than  half  ours.  Her  wealth  is 
little  more  than  one  twentieth.  She  has  the  handi- 
cap of  a  very  heavy  war  debt,  amounting  to  nearly 
one  sixth  of  her  assets,  relatively  more  than  twenty 
times  as  large  as  our  own  national  debt.  She  has 


THE  PERENNIAL  BOGEY  OF  WAR  57 

fought  two  great  wars  within  twenty  years,  the  last 
one  to  exhaustion.  Although  she  was  victorious 
in  every  battle,  it  was  a  drawn  struggle  at  the  end; 
for  neither  combatant  could  raise  or  borrow  money 
to  keep  its  forces  longer  in  the  field.  Few  people  are 
taxed  so  heavily  as  the  Japanese  and  even  their 
patience  cannot  be  tried  farther.  Moreover,  wisely 
or  not,  righteously  or  not,  Japan  has  taken  possession 
of  Korea  as  the  only  way  of  keeping  this  misgoverned 
buffer  state  out  of  the  clutches  of  Russia.  This,  too, 
is  a  costly  venture  with  vast  expenditures  and  no 
returns  except  in  the  hope  of  ultimate  unification  of 
the  two  nations.  The  Japanese  investments  in 
South  Manchuria  are  sources  of  risk  as  well  as  of 
profit,  and  the  cost  of  each  of  these  ventures  tends  to 
complicate  home  politics  as  well  as  to  delay  the  great 
internal  improvements,  road  building,  railroad  build- 
ing, sewer  building,  and  educational  development 
of  which  Japan  stands  so  much  in  need. 

The  system  of  protective  tariffs,  subsidies,  and 
rebates,  which  Japan,  in  emulation  of  Germany,  has 
adopted  is  also  a  heavy  burden  on  the  people  with  no 
redeeming  features  save  those  of  keeping  up  appear- 
ances and  of  starting  the  wheels  of  industry  a  little 
more  quickly  than  would  have  been  otherwise  possi- 
ble. And  for  this  too  the  workers  have  to  pay.  The 
Japanese  are  an  optimistic  race,  and  obedient,  but 


58  WAR  AND  WASTE 

at  bottom  they  are  not  warlike.  And  all  the  com- 
mon people  as  a  whole  are  thoroughly  opposed  to  war 
and  war  taxes.  They  are  as  eager  for  a  new  war  as 
the  people  of  San  Francisco  for  a  new  earthquake. 

The  first  sign  of  approaching  consideration  of 
army  and  navy  bills  by  the  committees  of  Congress 
is  usually  the  appearance  of  "35,000  Japanese  ex- 
soldiers"  among  the  plantation  hands  of  Hawaii, 
followed  by  a  larger  number,  usually  estimated  at 
75,000,  at  Magdalena  Bay,  in  Mexico.  An  honour- 
able general  in  our  army  has  been  found  to  vouch 
for  the  contingent  force  in  Hawaii.  It  is  probably  a 
fact  that  there  are  some  ex-soldiers  in  Hawaii,  a 
dozen  it  may  be,  or  possibly  a  hundred  in  all.  Even 
ex-soldiers  must  live,  and  until  1907  they,  with  other 
rice-field  hands,  were  given  passports  to  the  sugar 
plantations  in  Hawaii.  In  1900,  when  the  islands 
became  part  of  the  United  States,  a  majority  of  their 
population  was  Japanese.  Naturally  this  is  still 
true.  But  no  passports  for  Japanese  labourers  to 
enter  Hawaii  have  been  granted  since  1907,  and  it  is 
known  to  be  not  true  that  any  considerable  number 
of  the  Japanese  in  Hawaii  are  ex-soldiers.  Such  as 
they  are,  it  is  not  true  that  they  are  armed  by  the 
Japanese  Government  or  that  they  have  any  under- 
standing with  the  Japanese  Government  as  to  their 
course  of  action. 


THE  PERENNIAL  BOGEY  OF  WAR  59 

One  may  safely  deny,  if  so  preposterous  a  story 
merits  denial,  that  the  Japanese  Government  has 
any  designs  whatever  on  Hawaii,  or  that  there  is  the 
slightest  excuse  in  reason  for  the  costly  fortifications 
we  are  erecting  about  Honolulu  at  Pearl  Harbor. 
For  the  Japanese  to  seize  territory  of  the  United 
States  would  be  simple  suicide.  It  would  be  the 
signal  of  their  financial  and  therefore  military  col- 
lapse, for  the  "sinews  of  war"  are  not  soldiers  but 
money.  It  would  mean  the  loss  of  their  foothold  on 
the  continent  of  Asia.  There  is  nothing  so  important 
to  Japan  as  the  retention  of  her  financial  credit,  now 
most  jealously  guarded,  and  with  this  the  rulers  of 
Japan  will  take  no  chances.  Nor  have  the  Japanese 
any  desire  to  provoke  the  enmity  of  America  even 
were  it  safe  to  do  so.  America  is  her  best  customer, 
handling  one  third  of  her  exports.  The  historic 
relations  of  the  two  nations  have  been  most  friendly. 
Certainly  there  have  been  local  infelicities  for  which 
neither  America  nor  Japan  was  responsible,  but  none 
of  these  have  affected  the  traditional  friendship. 

On  the  positive  side,  the  Japanese  as  a  whole  have 
a  sincere  admiration  and  affection  for  America. 
One  reason  for  this  is  that  some  hundreds  of  their 
ablest  men  were  educated  in  American  Universities. 
And  the  Japanese  student  adds  to  our  traditional  col- 
lege loyalty  an  intensified  touch  of  his  own,  whereby 


60  WAR  AND  WASTE 

memories  of  Harvard,  Yale,  Cornell,  Wisconsin, 
Stanford,  and  the  rest  become  transfigured  in  a  light 
of  Shintoism.  For  every  Japanese  is  an  idealist. 
"Scratch  a  Japanese,  even  one  of  the  most  advanced 
type,"  says  Professor  Nitobe,  "and  you  will  find  a 
Samurai."  And  to  those  who  have  been  freely 
educated  in  American  colleges,  this  Samuraism  works 
itself  out  in  loyalty  to  America  as  well  as  to  Japan. 

The  "designs  of  Japan  on  the  Philippines"  may  be 
very  briefly  dismissed.  Japan  does  not  want  the 
Philippines.  She  could  not  afford  the  luxury. 
She  could  not  hold  them  nor  control  them  nor  take 
them  as  a  gift.  She  has  her  hands  quite  full  with 
Formosa  and  Korea.  It  would  be  almost  as  difficult 
for  Japan  to  administer  at  long  range  the  affairs  of 
the  Philippines  as  for  us  to  attempt  to  administer 
the  affairs  of  all  Spanish  America. 

The  usual  idea  that  Japan  is  an  over-crowded 
nation  that  must  seek  colonies  for  her  people  is  not 
more  than  half  true.  The  wonderfully  rich  rice 
lands  of  the  southern  half  of  the  country  are  certainly 
crowded,  the  farms  or  gardens  averaging  less  than 
three  acres  each.  But  the  Japanese,  if  fairly  com- 
fortable, like  to  live  in  a  crowd.  Personal  privacy 
.is  not  their  ideal.  The  homeless  rice-field  hands  will 
leave  their  native  region  to  go  anywhere  where  wages 
are  paid.  The  thrifty  burghers  and  farmers,  who 


THE  PERENNIAL  BOGEY  OF  WAR  61 

alone  form  the  stuff  for  colonies,  will  not  go.  The 
north  of  Japan,  a  rich  country,  fit,  not  for  rice,  but 
for  the  cultivation  of  hay,  cereals,  and  grazing 
animals,  was  long  left  unoccupied  and  even  now  fills 
up  slowly.  The  rush  to  Korea  and  Manchuria  was 
not  of  colonists  but  of  adventurers,  and  most  of 
these  were  soon  forced  to  return.  A  recent  report 
by  Michitaro  Sindo  on  colonial  possibilities  in  Peru 
was  wholly  adverse  although  the  same  investigator 
finds  real  possibilities  in  Brazil.  There  is  probably 
but  one  nation  "under  the  sun"  that  would  take  the 
Philippines  as  a  gift,  and  this  one  for  ulterior  reasons, 
for  "the  mirage  of  the  map,"  for  the  prestige  of 
domination,  and  not  for  any  strength  or  profit  that 
the  possession  of  these  islands  would  bring  her. 

For  the  last  two  years  the  war  scares  of  the  "Armor- 
Plate  Press "  have  largely  centred  about  Magdalena 
Bay,  in  Lower  California.  To  understand  the  actual 
facts  involved  in  that  situation,  we  must  premise 
two  things:  the  sale  of  concessions  by  Mexico  and 
the  optimism  of  Japanese  promoters.  The  Govern- 
ment of  Mexico  has  offered  its  public  lands,  its 
fishing  rights,  and  other  national  properties  freely 
to  bidders  of  any  nation.  The  aim  of  this  policy  is 
to  raise  money  as  well  as  to  develop  national  re- 
sources. 

Among  the  Japanese  residents  of  California  are 


62  WAR  AND  WASTE 

some  business  men  of  high  order.  Others  there  are 
without  credit  or  capital,  who  are  eager  to  take 
ventures  such  as  they  see  men  of  other  nationalities 
taking.  Promoters  are  promoters  everywhere  and  a 
Japanese  adventurer  may  throw  out  hints  of  the 
backing  of  rich  financiers  or  even  of  partnership  with 
the  Government,  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  may 
have  neither  money  nor  credit  and  the  Government 
no  knowledge  of  his  existence. 

Three  different  Mexican  concessions  are  involved 
in  the  Magdalena  Bay  situation:  the  Sandoval 
fishing  concession  of  the  shores  of  Lower  California, 
the  "Chartered  Company's"  concession  of  desert 
lands,  and  a  fishery  concession  about  Salina  Cruz. 

Magdalena  Bay  lies  in  the  rainless  belt  of  Lower 
California,  a  little  nearer  to  Mazatlan  than  San 
Diego,  as  far  from  either  or  from  any  town  as  Boston 
is  from  Washington,  and  almost  as  far  from  Panama 
as  it  is  from  Boston.  There  is  an  excellent  harbour, 
rich  in  fishes,  in  a  stormless  sea  —  a  suitable  place  for 
target  practice,  as  there  are  no  jack-rabbits  even  to 
be  disturbed.  There  is  no  town  and  no  place  for  a 
town;  for  there  is  no  fuel,  no  arable  land,  and  no 
water  except  from  a  small  brackish  spring  in  the 
sand  dunes. 

A  concession  covering  the  fishery  rights  to  Lower 
California  was  granted  some  years  ago  to  Mr.  A. 


THE  PERENNIAL  BOGEY  OF  WAR  63 

Sandoval  of  Los  Angeles.  At  Magdalena  Bay, 
Mr.  Sandoval  has  a  small  cannery  which  puts  up 
crabs  and  sea  turtles.  The  flesh  of  the  great  tuna  is 
salted  and  dried  in  the  form  in  which  it  is  used  in 
Japan  as  a  condiment.  Other  fish  —  corvina,  sea 
bass,  cavalla,  yellowtail,  and  the  like  —  run  in  great 
abundance,  but  these  are  mainly  used  for  the  manu- 
facture of  fertilizer.  It  does  not  pay  to  salt  them  for 
the  reason  that  the  Mexican  rock  salt  does  not  strike 
in  quickly  enough,  consequently  the  fish  dry  up  or 
spoil  before  curing,  and  other  salt  is  too  expensive. 
The  markets  for  fresh  fish  are  much  too  far  away,  and 
for  ordinary  salt  fish  there  is  no  market  nearer  than 
China. 

There  are  now  about  one  hundred  people  at 
Magdalena  Bay,  six  of  them  .(not  75,000)  are  Japa- 
nese, as  many  Chinese,  the  rest  mostly  Mexicans. 
The  Mexicans  are  not  good  fishermen.  At  places 
along  the  Lower  California  coast  the  Japanese  dive 
for  abalone,  the  meat  as  well  as  the  shell  of  this  big 
sea-snail  commanding  a  good  price. 

Since  1907,  the  Japanese  Foreign  Office  has 
granted  no  passports  for  labourers  to  come  to  any 
part  of  North  America.  It  is  therefore  not  possible 
for  them  to  increase  this  colony  very  much.  It  is, 
however,  apparently  true  that  individual  Japanese 
have  made  inquiries  in  regard  to  the  concession. 


64  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Mr.  Takesaki,  the  foreman  of  the  cannery  at  Mag- 
dalena  Bay,  was  formerly  in  charge  in  a  sardine 
cannery  (now  closed)  on  the  Inland  Sea  of  Japan. 
It  is  said  that  this  enterprise  failed  on  account  of  the 
prohibitory  tariff  on  tin.  Meanwhile,  Mr.  Sandoval 
is  developing  the  fisheries  under  his  control  as  well  as 
he  can  with  French  capital  —  not  Japanese  —  and 
he  hopes  to  bring  fishermen  from  Europe.  No  one 
could  object  to  a  French  cannery  at  Magdalena  Bay 
or  to  a  Japanese  cannery  or  a  Chinese  any  more  than 
to  an  English  railway  from  the  city  of  Mexico  to 
Vera  Cruz.  It  is  only  the  exigencies  of  the  Armor- 
Plate  Trust  that  lend  magnitude  to  such  netty 
ventures. 

But  the  "Armor-Plate  Press"  has  a  second  hola  on 
Magdalena  Bay.  The  "Chartered  Company  of 
Lower  California,"  managed  by  a  California  pro- 
moter and  said  to  be  financed  by  a  New  Hampshire 
lumberman,  holds  an  option  on  a  tract  of  desert 
about  Magdalena  Bay.  This  is  said,  on  dubious  au- 
thority, to  contain  8,000  square  miles,  or  five  million 
acres.  Authority  a  shade  better  places  it  at  two 
million  acres.  It  is  offered  at  a  few  cents  per  acre 
(10  to  25  cents  according  to  the  current  newspapers). 
It  is  reported  that  an  investigation  made  by  an 
English  syndicate  pronounced  the  land  worthless 
and  the  title  doubtful.  But  recently  a  Japanese 


THE  PERENNIAL  BOGEY  OF  WAR  65 

gentleman  of  San  Francisco  went  down  to  look  at 
this  concession.  This  man  is  known  in  California 
mainly  as  one  of  the  owners  or  promoters  of  a  bank 
which  failed  through  its  efforts  to  secure  friends  by 
making  loans  on  inadequate  security.  In  any 
event  it  is  known  that  he  had  control  of  no  capital 
and  represented  only  himself.  No  purchase  was  made 
and  nothing  happened  on  his  return.  So  far  as  I 
know  the  land  title  still  rests  with  the  Mexican 
Government.  It  might  be  presumed,  without  proof, 
that  the  promoter  went  on  a  pass,  and  that  his  visit 
was  desired  in  order  to  advertise  the  lands  in  ques- 
tion. The  incident  may  mark  an  apparent  effort 
to  induce  some  one  in  America  to  buy  these  worthless 
lands  to  keep  out  the  Japanese.  Already  the  writer 
has  received  one  letter  urging  that  the  Carnegie 
Peace  Endowment  should  undertake  the  purchase. 
How  many  letters  the  directors  may  have  received 
can  only  be  guessed.  Perhaps  none;  perhaps-  the 
force  of  the  effort  may  have  been  spent  on  Congress. 
But  perhaps  those  who  may  hold  this  option  on  land 
had  no  idea  of  using  Japan  as  a  lever  toward  finding 
a  purchaser.  Perhaps  the  Japanese  promoter  went 
down  on  his  own  initiative.  The  low  price  may  to 
him  have  spelled  opportunity.  His  highly  respected 
countryman,  George  Shima,  "the  potato  king  of 
California, "  has  become  a  millionaire  by  investments 


66  WAR  AND  WASTE 

in  overflowed  lands  in  the  Sacramento  basin.  But 
what  of  it  anyhow?  Suppose  a  certain  tract  in 
Mexico  passes  from  American  to  Japanese  control 
—  or  French  or  German  or  Chinese.  What  is  there 
in  the  transaction  to  serve  as  a  "menace"  to  the 
United  States?  But  it  "menaces"  the  Panama 
Canal,  and  the  canal  is  nearly  three  thousand  miles 
away.  Moreover,  in  all  this  discussion  it  must  be 
remembered  that,  whatever  be  the  fact  about  per- 
sonal ownership,  the  Constitution  of  Mexico  forbids 
the  alienation  of  any  of  its  territory.  Although  men 
of  all  civilized  nations  may  hold  land  titles  in  Mexico 
as  they  hold  land  in  the  United  States,  not  a  foot  of 
Mexican  territory  can  ever  be  sold  to  another 
nation.  And  it  is  certain  that  nothing  would  induce 
Japan  to  buy  a  foot  of  it  under  any  circumstances. 
With  our  senators,  our  newspapers,  and  our  "Armor- 
Plate"  patriots  on  the  alert,  it  would  doubtless 
prove  a  most  costly  holding.  On  this  our  "dock- 
yard strategists"  are  all  agreed. 

The  latest  adventure  to  disturb  the  patriotic 
syndicates  is  that  of  the  fishery  concessions  about 
Acapulco.  These  are  a  thousand  miles  from  Mag- 
dalena  Bay  and  reputed  to  be  in  "dangerous  prox- 
imity to  the  Canal  Zone,"  to  which  they  are  as  near 
as  Havana  is  to  Boston. 

From  the  best  available  authority  it  appears  that 


THE  PERENNIAL  BOGEY  OF  WAR  67 

the  Government  of  Mexico  has  offered  three  fishery 
concessions  along  this  part  of  her  coast,  each  of 
about  200  miles  in  extent,  the  one  centring  at  Man- 
zanillo,  the  second  near  Acapulco,  and  the  third  at 
Salina  Cruz.  The  rental  price  has  been  for  each 
3,000  pesos  ($1,500)  —  this  covering  a  period  of  ten 
years.  The  Toyo  Hege  Kaisha  (Oriental  Whaling 
Company)  of  Tokyo  has  obtained  an  option  at  a 
special  and  much  reduced  price  for  the  three.  The 
purchase  has  not  yet  been  made,  but  a  group,  under 
direction  of  Mr.  Okayama  of  the  whaling  company, 
has  been  formed  to  investigate  the  fishery  possi- 
bilities of  this  region.  It  is  understood  that  a  com- 
mission is  now  (since  January,  1912)  in  Mexico, 
assisted  by  a  fishery  expert,  a  diver,  a  ship's  carpen- 
ter, with  two  or  three  stenographers  and  interpreters. 
These  concessions  involve  the  right  to  sell  fresh 
fish  in  six  Mexican  cities  —  Mexico,  Guadalajara, 
Puebla,  Colima,  and  two  others  —  at  a  rate  not 
exceeding  12  centavos  (6  cents)  a  pound.  They 
carry  no  shore  rights  as  to  the  building  of  wharves, 
nor  any  matter  of  possible  interest  to  the  Japanese 
Government.  In  spite  of  the  abundance  of  fish,  it  is 
not  clear  that  these  concessions  have  any  prac- 
tical value.  Fish  canning  is  a  precarious  occupation 
under  the  tropical  sun. 
However,  new  possibilities  may  exist  among  the 


68  WAR  AND  WASTE 

shellfish  of  the  coast  and  perhaps  something  may  be 
done  with  sea  turtles.  But,  though  wishing  all 
success  to  the  whaling  company,  we  may  well  leave 
their  operations  to  themselves.  They  need  no  advice 
from  us.  Still  less  is  it  worth  our  while  to  worry 
over  the  dangerous  menace  of  their  presence.  Nor 
need  we  continue  to  throw  millions  on  millions  of 
good  money  after  bad  to  be  certain  that  our  coasts 
are  perfectly  defended  against  imaginary  foes.* 

It  is  no  tribute  to  our  "Yankee  horse  sense"  that 
we  develop  our  national  defenses  at  the  bidding  of 
the  armament  lobby.  It  is  no  evidence  of  our  pa- 
triotic forethought  that  we  spend  nearly  a  million 
dollars  every  day  to  ward  off  imaginary  attacks  from 
an  outworn,  bankrupt,  and  impotent  medievalism 
which  could  not  harm  us  if  it  would  and  would  not  if 
it  could.  Nor  are  we  different  in  this  from  other 
nations.  In  Europe  everywhere,  in  Japan,  in  South 
America,  in  Australia,  and  even  in  New  Zealand,  in 
every  land  which  has  an  army  and  navy,  actual  or 
potential,  the  same  story  is  told.  The  larger  the 
actual  army  or  navy,  the  more  effective  the  war 
scares,  because  the  number  engaged  in  promoting 
them  is  correspondingly  increased . 

But  the  stage  is  set.     The  play  is  on  and  war 

*Sincc  this  was  written  I  learn  that  the  Oriental  Whaling  Company  has 
abandoned  this  investigation,  the  concessions  being  practically  worthiest. 


THE  PERENNIAL  BOGEY  OF  WAR  69 

scares  and  war  waste  in  time  of  peace  will  not  end 
until  we  develop  a  robust  public  opinion  which  shall 
realize  the  fact  that  feudalism  is  dead,  that  war  is 
dying,  and  that  the  time  has  come  for  nations  to 
devote  their  mind  and  money  to  things  more  real 
and  more  pressing. 


CHAPTER  IV 
TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING 

I   WISH  to  call  attention  to  one  of  the  causes 
of  the  rise  in  the  cost  of  living:  that  is,  the 
increase   of    taxation    the  world  over,  due  to 
the  world-wide  increase  of  war  waste  and  debt. 

In  most  discussions  of  the  "Cost  of  Living,"  five 
or  more  different  phenomena  are  more  or  less  con- 
fused. These  are  (i)  the  "cost  of  high  living,"  (2) 
the  insistence  on  comfortable  living  on  the  part  of 
the  American  people,  (3)  the  increased  cost  of  living 
in  a  new  and  rich  country,  (4)  the  cost  of  the  protec- 
tive tariff  and  of  the  interests  that  find  shelter  behind 
it,  and  (5)  the  rising  price  of  all  articles  as  measured 
in  terms  of  gold. 

This  last  is  necessarily  accompanied  by  a  rise  in 
interest  rates  during  the  period  of  transition  to 
price  levels.  This  in  turn  leads  to  a  fall  in  value  of 
government  bonds  and  other  securities  bearing  a  low 
rate  of  interest.  And  this  fall  in  the  purchasing 
power  of  gold  constitutes  the  real  problem.  The 
others  are  merely  local  incidents. 

70 


i  TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        71 

But  the  rising  cost  of  living  affects  all  parts  of  the 
civilized  world  more  or  less  in  the  same  way.  It  is 
most  distressing  in  those  regions  where  the  body  of 
the  people  are  nearest  the  bread  line,  but  it  is  just  as 
real  in  other  regions.  The  actual  rise  in  cost  may  be 
greatest  in  amount  when  progress  is  greatest,  as 
some  have  claimed,  but  it  is  no  greater  in  its  effect 
on  the  people.  It  has  been  asserted  that  it  is  most 
felt  in  Japan  and  in  America.  In  Japan  it  causes 
greatest  distress.  In  America  most  fuss  is  made  over 
it.  But  it  is  just  as  definite  everywhere  else. 

That  similar  conditions  exist  the  world  over  is  a 
matter  of  common  knowledge.  In  a  recent  address 
before  the  United  States  Senate,  Mr.  Burton  has 
gathered  statistical  records  and  consular  reports 
which  show  that  a  steady  rise  in  nominal  values  of 
nearly  every  staple  of  life  has  been  going  on  for  about 
fifteen  years,  or  since  1897.  According  to  Mr.  Burton 
the  cost  of  a  year's  rations  in  the  United  States  Army 
in  1897  was  $45.62;  in  1900,  $63.87;  in  1912,  $86.32. 
The  "Englishman's  dollar,"  according  to  Sauerbeck, 
with  a  purchasing  power  of  100  cents  in  1897,  fell 
to  97  in  1898,  to  83  in  1900,  to  86  in  1905,  and  to  78 
in  1908.  The  American  dollar,  more  nimble  in  its 
decline,  fell  from  a  level  of  100  cents  in  1897  to  96 
in  1898,  81  in  1900,  77  in  1905,  and  70  in  1911. 

The  average  increase  in  ten  years  in  those  staple 


72  WAR  AND  WASTE 

foods  which  cover  the  needs  of  the  workingman  is 
about  50  per  cent.  The  reports  from  other  nations 
indicate  the  same  general  increase  of  retail  cost. 
It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  seek  an  equally  world- 
wide cause. 

To  ascertain  the  cause,  we  must  first  analyze  our 
problem  and  eliminate  those  factors  which  are  due 
to  other  than  world-wide  causes  or  which  were 
equally  effective  more  than  fifteen  years  before. 

Mr.  James  J.  Hill  has  said  that  the  problem  is  not 
that  of  the  "High  Cost  of  Living,"  but  of  the  "  Cost 
of  High  Living."  The  automobile,  for  example,  is 
a  costly  tool,  a  costly  toy,  a  costly  method  of  gaining 
or  regaining  health.  Many  a  house  has  been  mort- 
gaged to  pay  for  an  automobile.  To  live  in  general 
in  a  fashion  typified  by  the  automobile  is  high  living, 
and  high  living  the  world  over  is  and  always  has 
been  costly. 

But  the  men  who  own  automobiles  find  a  way  to 
pay  for  them.  They  could  not  keep  them  long  on 
any  other  terms.  Their  use  may  wear  out  the 
aggregate  of  national  wealth,  but  it  does  not  wear  out 
my  wealth  if  I  do  not  own  one.  That  you  own  an 
automobile  makes  me  none  the  poorer,  unless  the 
machine  in  some  way  gives  you  power  to  dodge  taxes 
or  in  some  other  way  to  oppress  your  fellows.  The 
automobile  becomes  an  economic  factor  mainly  as 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        73 

the  effort  expended  in  building  them  is  taken  from 
other  and  more  useful  lines  of  effort.  The  growth 
of  fine  hotels,  parallel  with  our  growing  wealth,  does 
not  itself  make  the  things  I  buy  more  expensive,  if  I 
do  not  buy  them  in  an  expensive  place.  The  ex- 
tended use  of  automobiles  tends  to  make  automo- 
biles cheaper,  and  the  use  of  luxuries  widens  the  range 
of  industrial  operations.  The  cost  of  high  living  falls 
on  the  man  who  lives  high.  It  does  not  raise  the 
cost  of  rice  in  Japan  above  the  reach  of  the  farmer 
who  creates  it.  The  high  prices  he  receives  avail 
nothing  if  tax  burdens  rise  still  higher.  There  were  in 
1911  only  about  two  hundred  automobiles  in  Japan, 
and  the  nation  has  not  even  built  roads  over  which 
these  may  be  run. 

High  living  has  extended  itself  largely  over  our 
country  since  1897  in  conformity  with  the  general 
prosperity,  in  which  the  people  at  large  participate 
more  fully  than  is  the  case  in  Asia  or  in  Europe. 
And  broadly  speaking,  the  cost  of  high  living  is  an 
American  affair.  The  rest  of  the  world  has  taken 
little  increased  part  in  it,  but  they  have  suffered 
equally  from  the  continuous  rise  in  cost  of  luxuries 
as  well  as  of  necessities. 

As  to  the  ordinary  cost  of  living  comfortably  in 
the  United  States,  measured  in  commodity  prices, 
it  is  a  matter  of  common  observation  that  it  is  always 


74  WAR  AND  WASTE 

higher  than  in  Europe.  It  is  likewise  higher  in  some 
parts  of  Europe  than  in  others,  highest  perhaps  in 
Holland  and  in  England,  lower  in  Belgium,  France, 
and  the  south  of  Europe  generally.  In  all  these 
countries  it  is  easier  to  make  economies,  cheaper  to 
get  along  if  economies  must  be  practised.  But  to 
live  well,  to  be  clean,  comfortable,  well  housed,  well 
washed,  and  well  fed,  the  cost  is  not  much  less  than 
in  the  United  States. 

The  difference  which  actually  exists  is  in  part  due 
to  the  higher  wages  in  America.  Workingmen  are 
less  numerous,  less  oppressed,  better  paid,  a  condi- 
tion which  in  turn  follows  reluctantly  the  higher  cost 
of  living.  Their  scale  of  living  is  higher  than  in 
Europe  and  there  is  a  far  more  widespread  deter- 
mination to  better  the  conditions  whatever  they  are. 
Prices  are  higher  in  a  new  region,  an  exploitable 
region,  a  region  of  large  opportunities,  a  region  in 
which  men  have  not  settled  into  classes,  class-con- 
sciousness, and  class  hopelessness. 

With  all  this,  the  American  distinctly  likes  to  be 
comfortable,  to  have  good  food  well  served,  to  live 
in  new  and  clean  houses,  and  to  have  attractive 
conditions  when  he  travels  and  when  he  stays  at 
home. 

Again,  as  there  are  no  hard  and  fast  lines  of  caste 
in  America,  the  number  of  those  who  rise  from  self- 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        75 

dependence  to  affluence  or  competence  is  far  larger 
than  in  any  other  country.  While  we  do  not  take 
seriously  our  hereditary  aristocracy,  and  while  we 
look  askance  on  the  very  rich  as  doubtful  of  their 
methods,  we  are  likely  to  attribute  incompetence  or 
aimlessness  to  a  man  who  in  middle  life  cannot  give 
a  certain  degree  of  comfort  to  himself  and  his  family, 
with  a  bit  left  over  for  the  future.  All  this  is  part  of 
the  explanation  of  the  high  cost  of  living  in  America, 
but  no  part  of  the  reason  why  this  cost  was  higher 
in  1911  than  in  1897  or  1905. 

Other  influences  which  make  for  a  higher  cost  of 
living  in  America  as  compared  with  Europe  are  the 
waste  of  fire  and  the  consequently  additional  cost 
of  insurance,  the  lack  of  coordination  in  distribution 
of  farm  products  and  other  matters,  the  cinching 
cooperation  of  dealers  and  distributors,  the  lack  of 
banking  facilities  in  the  great  producing  West  and 
the  resultant  high  interest  on  farm  mortgages,  and 
various  other  features  peculiar  to  a  new  and  sparsely 
settled  country.  With  this  goes  the  lack  of  postal 
savings  banks  and  of  the  disposition  to  use  them, 
the  lack  hitherto  of  a  parcels  post,  lack  of  open  mar- 
kets and  of  many  other  contrivances  which  in  Europe 
help  a  labourer's  money  to  go  farther  than  it  does 
here. 

The  waste  of  the  toleration  of  fraudulent  cor- 


76  WAR  AND  WASTE 

porations  and  of  get-rich-quick  schemes  is  also  a 
visible  factor  to  our  disadvantage.  The  demand  for 
statutes  which  prevent  the  sale  of  imaginary  values 
("blue-sky  laws")  is  an  evidence  that  the  people 
are  awakening  to  a  realization  of  the  cost  of  tolerating 
swindlers  and  swindling  operations. 

In  the  same  connections  though  with  a  different 
emphasis,  we  may  mention  the  financial  manipula- 
tions of  those  agencies  commonly  designated  as 
"Wall  Street." 

The  tariff  for  protection  is  not  far  away  from  these, 
and  it  is  indirectly  an  agency  not  only  in  raising 
prices  but  in  making  them  continuously  higher. 
This  is  due  to  the  shelter  or  leverage  it  offers  to 
schemes  for  stifling  competition. 

The  primal  purpose  of  the  protective  tariff  is  to 
raise  prices,  in  the  interest  of  home  producers.  In 
some  cases  it  fails  to  have  that  effect,  as  in  the  case 
of  grain.  In  its  grain  supplies,  Europe  is  dependent 
on  America,  the  price  being  fixed  in  Liverpool,  the 
great  storehouse,  or  in  London,  the  great  clearing 
house,  of  the  world,  in  accordance  with  the  exist- 
ing competition.  The  price  at  home  is  necessarily 
lower,  in  a  degree  proportionate  to  the  cost  of  car- 
riage to  London. 

In  some  cases,  also,  better  methods  of  production, 
or  the  stress  of  over-production,  render  the  price  of 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        77 

some  articles  at  home  lower  than  that  ruling  in 
London.  But  in  the  case  of  most  goods  which  are  or 
which  may  be  imported,  the  price  in  America  is 
enhanced  by  the  amount  of  the  duty.  The  suit  of 
clothing  which  the  writer  is  wearing  as  he  writes 
cost  him  #35  in  London  with  an  additional  duty  of 
$21  in  New  York.  In  San  Francisco  it  costs  about 
$60.  A  certain  piece  of  dress  goods  known  to  me 
cost  $30  in  London,  the  duty  is  $18,  and  the  article  is 
offered  in  a  fashionable  store  at  $80.  Part  of  the  cost 
is  chargeable  to  the  element  of  fashion,  and  fashion, 
like  fortune,  is  a  fickle  jade.  So  a  high  increment  of 
profit  is  necessary,  for  a  left-over  garment  of  to-day's 
fashion  may  have  no  value  at  all  to-morrow. 

In  general  terms,  however,  the  protective  tariff  is 
the  largest  element  in  our  American  high  prices, 
especially  of  clothing  and  of  manufactured  articles. 
No  one  can  estimate  how  much  it  has  operated  to 
raise  prices,  for  the  details  depend  on  the  degree  in 
which  manufacturers  and  jobbers  can  use  it  as  a 
leverage  in  forcing  up  the  prices  of  their  wares. 

But  this  does  not  explain  the  rising  cost  of  living. 
The  American  tariff  has  not  been  materially  changed 
in  these  fifteen  years.  It  is  even  occasionally  "re- 
duced downward, "  as  Mr.  Dooley  sagely  observed  "  to 
the  point  where  the  poorest  are  within  its  reach." 
The  reduction  is  so  cleverly  done  that  its  pinch  on  the 


78  WAR  AND  WASTE 

consumer  has  never  been  relaxed.  Protection  is  a 
factor  in  the  increased  cost  of  living  mainly  in  this 
way.  The  last  fifteen  years  have  enabled  the 
beneficiaries  of  the  tariff,  through  trusts  and  other 
similar  agencies,  to  get  steadily  a  firmer  strangle- 
hold on  the  ultimate  consumer:  that  is,  the  people 
generally.  In  this  way  they  have  not  only  main- 
tained high  prices  but  made  them  still  higher.  To 
do  the  one  is  to  have  power  to  do  the  other.  It  is 
not  my  purpose  to  discuss  the  tariff  question  further 
than  to  insist  that  from  every  point  of  view  of  good 
government  the  special  privileges  involved  in  "pro- 
tection" are  violations  of  the  American  principle 
of  "equality  before  the  law,"  and  opposed  to  the 
people's  interests. 

But  we  need  not  deny  that  tariff  protection  has 
diversified  our  industries,  encouraged  the  uce  of  nat- 
ural advantages,  and  it  may  have  even  increased  the 
aggregate  of  national  wealth. 

It  does  all  this  because  its  main  function  is  to 
transfer  money  into  the  pockets  of  the  man  of  enter- 
prise. There  are  no  other  pockets  from  which  to  take 
it  save  those  of  the  common  man.  To  promote  the 
wealth  of  the  wealthy  is  a  most  commendable  thing 
in  national  finance.  It  is  in  the  hands  of  the  rich 
that  public  wealth  accumulates  most  rapidly. 
Wealth  flows  into  their  hands,  even  without  the  aid 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        79 

of  privilege,  but  every  special  privilege  helps.  The 
fact  that  a  man  is  poor  shows  that  he  is  in  fact  not  a 
proper  custodian  of  funds.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
a  community  is  richer  with  one  great  corporation 
which  bestrides  the  earth,  and  has  kings  and  bankers, 
senates  and  churches,  tributary  to  its  power,  than 
with  a  thousand  business  firms  each  striving  simply 
to  collect  a  living  for  the  partners.  The  process  of 
forming  a  perfect  American  Beauty  Rose  by  pinch- 
ing off  all  competing  buds  has  been  commended  as  a 
model  of  financial  development.  By  the  same  proc- 
esses we  may  develop  a  giant  chrysanthemum,  or 
a  corporation  of  any  sort  which  shall  be  hailed  as 
"standard." 

The  fact  is  plain.  Wealth  grows  most  rapidly 
when  its  components  are  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
know  how  to  develop  wealth.  If  the  purpose  of 
government  is  to  increase  national  wealth  by  the 
quickest  and  surest  way,  the  method  of  protection 
and  subsidy  is  the  surest.  It  does  not  increase 
individual  wealth,  for  the  struggling  little  men  must 
pay  for  the  dominant  big  ones,  but  the  method  is 
sure  and  it  is  receiving  a  brilliant  trial  in  Germany. 
While  we  investigate,  harass,  and  dissolve  our  great 
industrial  monopolies,  Germany  renders  every  assist- 
ance that  governmental  alliance,  protective  tariffs, 
and  systems  of  rebate  render  possible.  Every  help 


8o  WAR  AND  WASTE 

that  technical  schools  for  managers,  for  experts,  and 
for  workmen  can  give  is  also  at  their  service.  The 
value  of  this  feature  to  every  element  in  the  indus- 
trial world  cannot  be  over-estimated. 

This  phase  of  German  administration  is  a  model 
to  the  world,  although  in  a  democracy  the  theory 
and  purpose  of  technical  and  industrial  education 
must  be  different.  In  Germany,  the  work  of  the 
individual  is  intensified  and  encouraged  in  order 
thereby  to  exalt  the  State.  In  America,  the  State 
belongs  to  the  people  and  still  exists  for  their  benefit. 
In  England,  the  two  ideas  still  struggle  for  mastery 
without  complete  victory  of  either.  The  primary 
business  of  a  democracy  is  justice,  neither  to  make 
money  for  itself  nor  to  help  its  citizens  to  make  it, 
but  to  see  that  all  have  an  equally  fair  chance  to  do 
so.  In  this  sense  "America  means  opportunity," 
and  nothing  more.  Old  age  pensions,  enforced 
insurance,  and  the  like  at  the  most  make  slight 
amends  for  lost  opportunity. 

But  in  the  world  at  large,  the  world  of  dukes  and 
barons,  of  generals  and  admirals,  of  kings  of  finance 
and  lords  of  exploitation,  the  ideal  of  equality  before 
the  law  does  not  yet  obtain.  Wealth  calls  for  wealth, 
privilege  for  more  privilege. 

It  is  plain,  however,  that  if  any  one  grows  rich  in 
a  community  the  whole  community  is  the  richer 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        81 

for  it.  The  lustre  of  his  prosperity  is  in  a  fashion 
reflected  from  every  face.  This  creates  as  it  were  an 
atmosphere  of  affluence,  and  where  affluence  is,  all 
the  other  charms  of  life  soon  gather.  There  is 
nothing  so  fascinating  as  the  movement  of  enter- 
prise, and  nothing  accelerates  it  so  much  as  govern- 
mental push,  the  transfer  of  the  force  of  the  many 
to  the  designs  of  the  few. 

One  feature  of  all  this  is  a  heightened  cost  of  living. 
As  the  elements  of  prosperity  gradually  strengthen 
their  hold  on  the  articles  they  handle  or  create,  we 
find  that  Senator  Burton  is  right  in  claiming  that 
this  rise  in  cost  is  greatest  in  the  progressive  countries 
of  the  world. 

When,  in  1897,  world  prices  began  to  rise,  with 
them  came  the  rise  of  trusts,  industrial  combinations, 
and  enterprises  extended  and  expanded  by  means  of 
earnings  based  on  false  values  —  that  is,  on  watered 
stock.  These  are  not  peculiar  to  the  United  States, 
but  have  been  more  or  less  dominant  throughout  the 
range  of  the  "Great  Powers"  and  of  their  colonial 
dependencies. 

These  are  not  altogether  or  even  mainly  an  out- 
growth of  the  protective  tariff,  although  in  almost 
every  case  and  in  every  nation  their  influence  has 
favoured  the  extension  of  "protection"  and  from 
protection  they  have  drawn  increasing  strength. 


82  WAR  AND  WASTE 

This  increase  of  monopoly,  this  accession  of  shelter 
and  leverage  toward  the  maintenance  of  prices, 
must  be  a  factor  in  the  rising  cost  of  living.  How 
great  a  factor  this  is,  perhaps  no  one  is  prepared  to 
say.  Certainly  prices  would  be  lowered,  and  their 
continued  rise  afterward  checked  in  some  degree,  if 
protection  were  withdrawn  wherever  it  furnishes  a 
check  to  competition.  And  every  phase  of  protec- 
tion of  wealth-producing  through  taxation  must  be 
of  this  nature. 

But  rising  cost  is  not  confined  to  America  alone 
nor  to  those  countries  which  have  most  felt  the  bene- 
ficent influence  of  the  protective  tariff.  The  tariffs 
of  England  are  laid  for  revenue  only,  and  in  that 
country  as  in  the  United  States  there  has  been  a 
steady  rise  in  price  of  all  staple  articles.  The  fact 
that  the  "Englishman's  dollar"  has  fallen  to  78 
only,  while  the  American's  dollar  stands  at  70,  may 
measure  in  part  the  effects  of  privilege  in  stifling 
competition.  For  world  effects,  we  must  look  for 
world-wide  causes.  Free  trade,  fair  trade,  taxed 
trade  and  trade  untaxed  —  these  matters,  while 
entering  into  the  total  of  money  stress  and  money 
abundance,  are  more  or  less  local  and  temporary  in 
their  chief  effects. 

Preceding  the  year  1897,  we  had  a  financial  panic 
especially  severe  in  America,  a  period  in  which 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        83 

liquidation  was  imperative  and  money  as  a  con- 
sequence scarce  and  dear.  The  prices  of  almost  all 
articles  and  notably  those  of  farm  products  were 
abnormally  low,  and  the  farmer  with  the  rest  of  us 
was  in  debt  and  distress. 

This  same  period  of  rising  prices  has  been  accom- 
panied by  a  great  increase  in  the  output  of  gold 
mining.  In  the  fifteen  years  following  1897,  the 
amount  of  gold  in  the  world  has  been  increased  by 
half,  from  about  #7,500,000,000  to  #11,000,000,000. 
The  average  annual  increment  is  now  more  than 
#400,000,000,  about  #100,000,000  of  this  being  con- 
sumed in  the  arts.  And  these  sums  are  cumulative, 
the  amount  each  year  being  added  to  the  previous 
stock.  It  is  natural  to  assume  that,  as  the  price  of 
gold  as  measured  in  other  products  has  steadily 
fallen  as  the  stock  of  gold  has  risen,  the  one  fact  has 
been  the  cause  of  the  other.  It  is  not  clear  to  what 
extent  this  is  true,  nor  even  that  it  is  true  at  all, 
although  most  economists  admit  it  as  a  partial 
explanation  of  the  rising  cost  of  living.  The  rising 
rate  of  interest  under  the  pressure  of  demands  from 
Germany,  Austria,  and  other  over-taxed  nations 
indicate  that  we  have,  not  a  surplus,  but  a  real 
shortage  of  gold. 

If  the  over-production  of  gold  is  advancing  beyond 
the  demand  it  is  clear  that  its  value  must  fall.  But 


84  WAR  AND  WASTE 

it  is  not  evident  that  the  demand  is  much  affected, 
the  one  way  or  the  other,  by  the  increase  in  quantity 
of  its  measure  of  value.  Gold  is  the  nominal  basis 
of  credit,  and  the  total  gold  reserve  of  the  world  is 
very  small  compared  with  the  bonded  debts  of 
civilization  (about  $6o,CKX>,ooo,ooo),  and  the  debt 
increases  more  rapidly  than  the  reserve. 

It  is  also  uncertain  what  value,  if  any,  we  must  give 
to  another  factor,  that  of  waste  in  seeking  for  gold. 
Prodigious  sums  are  each  year  wasted  or  transferred 
to  undesirable  hands  through  the  exploitation  of 
mines  which  do  not  pay  or  through  the  operations 
of  swindlers.  If  these  sums  be  added  to  the  cost  of 
gold  there  is  not  much  aggregate  profit  in  gold  mining. 

It  is  not  clear  that  great  accessions  to  the  gold 
stock  in  the  past  have  materially  or  permanently 
raised  prices.  If  this  were  an  important  element,  it 
should  not  have  been  felt  in  1897  nor  in  the  years 
immediately  following,  but  its  force  should  be  cumu- 
lative corresponding  to  the  increase  of  the  stock 
of  gold.  Apparently  also  the  gold  output  of  the 
future  is  likely  to  become  less  rather  than  greater. 
While  not  denying  the  reality  of  the  gold  increase 
as  a  factor  in  raising  prices,  we  may  well  question 
its  leading  position  in  raising  cost  as  distinguished 
from  prices  and  in  effecting  an  abnormal  distribution 
of  the  wealth  it  produces. 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        85 

More  important,  it  would  seem,  is  the  fact  that 
under  new  processes  of  metallurgy  gold  can  now  be 
obtained  at  a  cost  lower  than  the  cost  fifteen  years 
ago.  The  cyanide  processes  extract  upward  of  90 
per  cent,  of  the  actual  gold,  while  only  about  60 
per  cent,  was  obtained  by  the  cruder  methods.  The 
great  mines  of  the  Rand,  it  is  said,  with  their  output 
of  about  $1,759,000,000,  could  not  have  been  worked 
by  the  old  processes.  The  value  of  all  gold  must  be 
affected  by  the  cost  of  obtaining  more.  In  so  far 
as  gold  values  are  the  result  of  cost  of  production, 
the  better  methods  must  tend  to  lower  them.  It  is 
not  clear,  however,  that  the  cost  of  production  is  the 
chief  factor  that  regulates  these  values.  What  the 
value  of  the  factor  of  the  cyanide  process  may  be  in 
cheapening  gold  values,  no  one  can  say. 

But  it  seems  certain  that  in  this  regard  the  climax 
is  already  reached.  Not  many  new  gold  mines  have 
been  opened  under  the  stimulus  of  cheapened 
methods.  The  impetus  to  mining  speculation  is 
already  spent,  and  while  it  lasted  it  was  productive 
of  waste  rather  than  of  wealth. 

Most  of  the  new  gold  has  come  from  the  working 
over  of  the  abandoned  dump  heaps  of  earlier  mining 
operations.  The  best  mining  engineers  claim  that 
the  recent  increase  in  gold  production  is  "due  to  the 
discovery  of  a  process,  not  to  the  discovery  of  mines. 


86  WAR  AND  WASTE 

The  enlarged  supply  comes  from  the  old  sources  and 
the  increment  is  constantly  lessened  as  the  old 
material  is  worked  over  with  the  resources  of  modern 
science.  To  be  sure,  there  may  be  a  discovery  of 
either  still  another  process  of  extraction  or  of  un- 
imagined  mines,  but  one  is  as  little  likely  as  the  other. 
Meanwhile,  with  the  constant  cheapening  of  gold, 
there  is  a  constant  tendency  to  lessen  the  frenzy  of 
the  attack  upon  the  old  stock  of  raw  material  of  what 
may  be  called  the  manufactured  article.  For,  in 
fact,  the  new  processes  are  almost  processes  of  manu- 
facture. So  many  yards  of  material,  so  much  cost 
for  working,  so  much  profit,  and  ultimately  an  end." 

In  any  event,  whatever  weight  we  may  attach 
either  to  the  increased  output  of  gold,  or  to  the  in- 
creased cheapness  of  production,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  in  both  regards  the  world  has  reached  a 
practical  equilibrium. 

There  remains  but  one  other  important  world 
factor  in  the  world-wide  cost  of  living.  This  is 
found  in  the  increase  of  taxes  since  1897,  and  in  the 
withdrawal,  as  supported  by  these  taxes,  of  millions 
of  men  from  productive  labour. 

This  change  followed  the  costly  and  calamitous 
Boer  War,  and  was  marked  by  the  great  increase  in 
naval  expenses,  by  the  building  of  dreadnaughts 
costing  $6,000,000  apiece  or  more,  and  of  super- 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        87 

dreadnaughts  ranging  upward  to  $15,000,000,  with 
parallel  increases  of  expenditures  military  and  civil 
in  all  directions  and  almost  everywhere.  These 
expenditures  were  added  to  the  rapidly  growing 
interest  charges  on  the  bonded  indebtedness  of  the 
world,  the  bulk  of  this  being  the  debt  for  past  wars, 
with  a  large  and  rapidly  growing  indebtedness  for 
money  borrowed  for  municipal  and  other  com- 
mercial or  industrial  expansion.  No  matter  who 
holds  the  bonds,  interest  must  be  paid,  and  to  pay 
interest  swells  the  burdens  of  taxation.  A  lent 
dollar,  which  has  the  certainty  of  being  more  and 
more  heavily  taxed  with  each  succeeding  year,  calls 
for  an  increased  rate  of  interest  proportional  to  its 
prospective  loss  in  value  when  it  is  to  be  repaid. 
Any  article  must  rise  in  price  when  its  value  is 
measured  in  terms  of  a  progressively  reduced  because 
overtaxed  dollar. 

If  our  view  is  correct,  the  fall  of  gold  is  closely 
related  to  reckless  financial  administration  of  the 
leading  nations  of  the  world.  Not  one  of  these  has 
any  adequate  check  on  extravagant  appropriations 
on  the  part  of  its  cabinets  or  legislative  bodies. 
To  spend  money  is  a  chief  function  of  both  these 
groups,  whether  in  a  monarchy  or  a  democracy. 
Representative  government  is  even  more  lavish 
than  most  kings  could  ever  afford  to  be. 


88  WAR  AND  WASTE 

In  the  Economiste  Frangaise,  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu 
has  lately  declared  that  "the  world  at  the  present 
moment  is  excessively  badly  governed.  It  has  rarely 
been  so  badly  governed.  It  is  in  the  hands  of 
incurable  prodigals  and  improvident  experimenters. 
Public  credit  can  be  maintained  by  a  vigorously 
strict  financial  management,  full  of  foresight,"  and 
that  no  nation  at  present  seems  to  possess. 

In  191 1,  the  bonded  debt  of  the  nations  amounted 
to  about  $37,000,000,000.  These  sums  were  virtually 
pawn  checks,  the  cost  of  wars  already  fought.  The 
annual  interest  charge  on  these  was  more  than 
$1,400,000,000.  The  annual  naval  expenses  of 
the  seven  "most  progressive"  —  that  is,  most  waste- 
ful —  nations  rose  from  about  $250,000,000  in  1897 
to  $629,000,000  in  191 1,  approaching  $1,000,000,000 
in  1913.  The  total  annual  expense  for  army  and 
navy  of  these  nations  rose  from  about  $900,000,000 
in  1897  to  $1,742,000,000  in  1911.  The  number  of 
men  withdrawn  from  productive  work  rose  corre- 
spondingly. Meanwhile,  municipal  indebtedness  rose 
in  like  proportions,  with  its  burden  of  taxes  and 
of  officialism.  The  bonded  debt  of  the  British  cities 
was  in  1897  about  $1,500,000,000,  in  1911  about 
$3,800,000,000.  In  France  the  bonded  municipal 
debt  was  in  1906  about  $800,000,000,  in  1911  about 
$1,200,000,000.  In  Germany  the  municipal  debt  of 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        89 

most  cities  has  doubled  every  ten  years  for  a  long 
time.  The  aggregate  in  1906  was  $1,825,000,000. 
It  must  now  be  at  least  $2,500,000,000.  The 
municipal  debts  of  the  United  States  aggregate 
somewhat  more.  They  stood  in  1902  at  $1,765,- 
000,000.  In  San  Francisco,  for  example,  we  had  in 
1902  a  budget  of  $6,500,000  annually.  In  1913 
this  budget  is  $15,000,000.  The  valuation  of  city 
property  in  1902  was  $413,000,000.  In  1913,  it  is 
$510,000,000.  It  is  estimated  that  in  1921  the 
valuation  will  be  $753,000,000,  the  tax,  $27,000,000. 
The  total  bonded  debt  of  the  world,  war  debt  and 
municipal  debt,  is  somewhat  more  than  $60,000,000,- 
ooo,  or  about  half  the  estimated  value  of  all  the 
property  in  the  United  States,  or  about  the  same  as 
the  total  wealth  of  Great  Britain.  The  interest  on  this 
sum  is  not  less  than  $2,500,000,000  per  year.  The 
cost  of  armies  and  navies  with  collateral  expenses 
stands  now  at  nearly  the  same  figure.  These  sums 
are  paid  each  year  in  one  fashion  or  another.  They 
are  paid  by  taxes,  and  about  half  of  the  sum  of  all 
these  taxes  is  exacted  in  addition  to  all  the  taxes  paid 
by  the  people  in  1897. 

The  severity  of  taxation  varies,  of  course,  with 
different  regions,  but  the  percentage  collected  on 
every  dollar  of  working  capital  or  income  has  its 
reflex  effect  on  reducing  the  value  of  that  dollar  in 


90  WAR  AND  WASTE 

the  clearing  house  of  the  world.  In  the  course  of  an 
argument  to  show  that  Germany  is  not  suffering 
from  tax-exhaustion,  but  has  still  the  means  to 
conduct  "the  next  war"  (the  war  against  Great 
Britain),  General  Freidrich  von  Bernhardi  thus 
discusses  taxation  in  Germany: 

"That  the  German  people  should  have  reached  the 
limit  of  their  tax-paying  ability  is  quite  impossible. 
The  taxes  in  Prussia  have  risen  from  1893-4  to 
1910-11  but  56  per  cent,  per  head  of  population,  from 
$4.90  to  $7.67,  tax  and  tariff  together.  In  the  rest 
of  Germany  the  per  cent,  of  increase  is  doubtless 
similar. " 

For  army  and  navy  every  individual  in  Germany 
pays  yearly  $4,  in  France  $5,  in  England  $7.25. 
In  this  are  counted  direct  expenditures  only,  ex- 
clusive of  correlated  expenses  of  interest,  pen- 
sions, and  the  enforced  idleness  of  thousands  of 
men  who  might  be  engaged  in  productive  indus- 
try. Meanwhile  other  thousands,  unable  to  care 
for  themselves  through  incompetence,  drunkenness, 
vice,  or  congested  crowding,  are  left  at  home  to  be 
likewise  a  burden  on  labour.  To  all  this  waste  must 
be  added  the  direct  burdens  of  the  two  great  wars 
of  the  last  fifteen  years,  the  Boer  War  and  the  war 
in  Manchuria,  their  enormous  waste  going  to  swell 
the  tax  load  of  the  world,  for  war  anywhere  is  eco- 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        91 

nomic  waste  which  spreads  sickness  throughout  the 
economic  system  of  civilization. 

It  is  said  that  the  total  tax  rate  in  New  York  is 
two  and  a  quarter  times  as  high  as  it  was  in  1897. 
The  indirect  taxation  of  protection  which  no  one 
can  measure  has  risen  in  still  higher  proportion. 
It  then  may  be  affirmed  in  round  numbers  that  the 
tax  expenses  of  the  civilized  world  have  doubled 
since  1897.  The  wealth  of  the  world  has  risen,  but 
not  in  the  same  proportion,  and  much  of  the  apparent 
increase  in  wealth  is  due  to  this  very  fact,  of  the  fall 
in  the  value  of  the  measuring  standard  of  gold,  due 
in  large  part  at  least  to  excessive  taxation.  And 
the  tendency  of  all  these  operations  of  debt,  borrow- 
ing, tariff  protection,  and  the  like  is  to  swell  the 
wealth  of  the  banker  and  the  lord  at  the  expense  of 
the  common  folk.  Many  little  streams  of  privilege 
join  to  swell  a  great  river. 

All  the  nations  of  the  earth  are  devising  new 
methods  of  taxation:  income  tax,  inheritance  tax, 
syndicate  concessions,  government  monopolies  — • 
liquor,  tobacco,  salt,  camphor,  railroads  —  without 
giving  up  the  old  forms  of  exaction. 

The  population  of  the  United  States  in  1911  was 
93,722,509  persons.  The  tax  burden  of  city,  state, 
and  nation  amounts  to  $38.50  per  capita,  "establish- 
ing a  record  of  public  expenditure  which  no  other 


92  WAR  AND  WASTE 

nation  on  the  globe  approaches  or  presumably  is 
anxious  to  emulate." 

All  taxes,  however  levied,  constitute  a  confiscation 
of  private  property  for  public  purposes  of  greater  or 
less  importance  to  the  individual.  A  large  and 
varying  percentage  represents  avoidable  and  there- 
fore harmful  waste.  All  these  burdens  fall  finally 
on  those  groups  which  have  least  power  of  resistance. 
All  of  them  tend  to  reduce  the  future  value  of  the 
monetary  unit.  As  most  of  these  imposts  are  made 
through  indirect  tariff  exactions,  proportioned  not 
to  wealth  or  income  but  only  to  consumption,  they 
fall  far  more  heavily  on  the  farmer  and  the  labourer 
than  on  the  man  of  wealth.  The  wealthiest  Ameri- 
can, as  Mr.  Pels  observes,  "can  eat  only  one  meal  at 
a  time  and  only  three  or  four  meals  a  day. "  A  poor 
man  does  not  eat  as  much  as  a  rich  man,  but  the 
difference  is  less  than  the  difference  between  their 
property  holding. 

The  increase  of  taxation  falls  on  the  middleman 
as  well  as  on  the  others.  He  has,  however,  a  certain 
power  of  self-protection  by  putting  up  his  prices. 
If  he  can  maintain  them  singly  or  in  cooperation 
through  monopolies  or  trusts,  the  producer  or  the 
consumer  must  suffer.  In  any  event  the  ultimate 
incidence  of  increased  taxation  must  fall  on  those 
social  units  which  have  least  ability  to  strike  back. 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        93 

As  matters  are,  these  groups  are  the  workingmen, 
the  men  on  fixed  salaries,  and  those  dependent  on 
annuities.  As  the  purchasing  power  of  a  dollar  will 
be  less  in  ten  years,  the  rate  of  interest  tends  to  rise. 
It  tends  to  fall  with  the  settled  civilization  of  a  coun- 
try, with  the  relative  decline  in  opportunities  for 
special  enterprise  or  successful  exploitation. 

Since  1897  the  tendency  of  interest  rates  has  been 
upward.  At  the  same  time  bonded  debts  bearing  a 
low  rate  of  interest  have  steadily  fallen  in  value.  It 
is  recorded  that  the  British  Consols,  once  "the 
premier  investment"  of  the  world,  at  2f  per  cent, 
stood  at  113  in  1897.  They  are  now  quoted  at  73 }. 
Calculated  on  a  3  per  cent,  basis,  their  real  value  in 
1897  would  have  been  $123.28,  their  actual  value  at 
present  $93.90.  Similar  depreciation  has  taken 
place  in  the  values  of  the  bonded  securities  of  France 
and  Germany,  and  in  general  in  all  "gilt-edged,"  low- 
interest  bonds.  This  has  turned  public  attention 
to  the  local  mortgage  which  bears  a  higher  rate  of 
interest.  People  have  been  led  into  a  reckless  prefer- 
ence for  securities  with  uncertain  basis  over  the 
smaller  but  certain  earnings  of  the  low-priced  bonds. 
But  all  recent  national  borrowings  have  been  made  at 
a  higher  rate.  The  Government  of  Prussia,  for 
example,  has  paid  5.20  per  cent,  in  New  York  on 
short  period  loans. 


94  WAR  AND  WASTE 

To  sum  up:  In  the  judgment  of  the  present  writer 
the  primary  factor  in  the  rise  of  the  cost  of  living  the 
world  over  is  the  fall  in  the  value  of  gold  due  to  excessive 
and  growing  financial  exactions.  In  other  words,  it 
is  produced  by  the  steadily  growing  encroachment  of 
government  on  the  individual  through  the  Indirect  Tax 
and  the  Deferred  Payment,  the  two  agencies  of  tyranny 
in  the  past,  now  used  for  the  self -oppression  of  democ- 
racy. 

The  function  of  government  and  government  of- 
ficials is  to  spend  and  not  to  save,  and  each  govern- 
ment has  the  medieval  obsession  of  spending  for 
show  and  for  defense  against  imaginary  dangers 
rather  than  for  matters  which  directly  concern  and 
directly  help  the  people. 

To  state  the  problem  in  another  form:  The 
common  man  has  too  many  mouths  to  feed  besides 
his  own  and  those  of  his  family.  The  long  roll  of 
those  fed  by  tax  increments  is  steadily  growing  as 
grow  the  taxes  which  support  them. 

It  is  estimated  that  one  man  in  sixteen  in  France 
is  a  government  official  and  one  man  in  sixteen  in 
New  Zealand  also.  The  percentage  is  not  very  much 
lower  in  England  and  Germany.  The  general  fact 
that  such  officials  are  often  chosen  through  favourit- 
ism or  for  political  reasons  rather  than  for  merit 
increases  the  burden  on  those  who  have  no  part  in 


TAXING  THE  COST  OF  LIVING        95 

the  choosing.  One  cause  of  the  spread  of  the  social 
democracy  in  Europe  is  found  in  the  exclusion  in 
some  countries  of  its  adherents  from  the  public 
service.  To  shut  out  of  the  public  service  any  type 
of  men  on  account  of  political  ideas  makes  for  ineffi- 
ciency, corruption,  and  discontent.  To  add  to  these 
burdens  we  have  in  all  lands  the  hundreds  of  preda- 
tory rich  and  the  thousands  of  desultory  poor, 
equally  a  burden  and  a  growing  burden  on  society 
because  their  earnings  are  less  than  the  cost  of  their 
yearly  keep.  A  steadily  increasing  number  of  men 
are  economically  idle  through  employment  in  the 
extension  of  war  armament.  As  the  navies  fade 
away  after  twelve  or  fifteen  years  of  idleness,  the 
effort  expended  on  them  is  economic  loss. 

It  is  said  on  good  authority  that  one  man  in  every 
six  in  England  is  in  some  way  personally  or  finan- 
cially interested  in  the  extension  of  the  army^  or 
navy.  All  these  are  so  many  more  mouths  to  be  fed 
by  the  common  man  of  the  nations.  If  the  tax- 
payer had  only  his  own  to  feed,  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand  would  soon  abate  the  rise  in  cost  of 
living. 

The  wealth  of  the  world  increases  amazingly 
through  scientific  invention,  through  commerce, 
and  through  the  betterment  of  social  relations. 
Its  nominal  wealth  is  also  rapidly  increased  through 


96  WAR  AND  WASTE 

the  fall  in  the  value  of  its  standard  of  measure. 
Still  more  rapidly  rises  the  cost  of  administration, 
and  the  greatest  of  the  items  of  expense  are  in  lines 
which  are  wholly  unproductive  either  of  wealth  or  of 
well  being  to  those  who  pay  the  taxes.  At  the  best, 
these  expenses  constitute  a  vague  insurance  against 
evils  which  may  never  come,  and  which  they  help 
to  create. 

If  these  views  are  at  all  correct,  and  they  are 
presented  tentatively  and  in  a  spirit  of  modesty,  we 
find  in  this  rising  cost  a  dangerous  portent  in  world 
economics.  It  is  the  sign  of  a  condition  that  must 
be  worse  before  it  can  grow  better,  for  there  is  no 
visible  sign  that  any  nation,  whether  monarchy  or 
republic,  is  likely  to  reduce  its  army  of  non-producers, 
to  pay  its  debts  or  to  abate  its  taxes.  The  enforced 
assessments  of  the  governments  are  causing  a  great 
and  growing  unrest  among  the  people. 

When  we  consider  how  persistently  the  ultimate 
citizen  is  imposed  upon,  under  the  guise  of  patriot- 
ism and  protection,  we  can  appreciate  the  remark  of 
Bernard  Shaw  that  "Man  is  the  only  animal  that 
esteems  himself  great  in  proportion  to  the  number 
and  voracity  of  his  parasites. " 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  INTERLOCKING  DIRECTORATE 

IN  THE  recent  Pujo  committee  investigation  of 
the  Money  Power  of  New  York,  one  phrase 
came  to  the  front,  the  "Interlocking  Di- 
rectorate." We  should  hold  on  to  this  phrase, 
before  letting  it  slip  back  into  the  dark  vaults  of  the 
bank,  for  it  has  a  wealth  of  significance,  and  it  will 
have  much  more  before  the  world  gets  through 
with  it. 

In  brief,  the  "Interlocking  Directorate"  is  a  device 
whereby  one  great  financial  institution  keeps  itself  in 
touch  with  many  others,  insuring  unity  of  action  and 
preventing  cross-purposes  in  the  industry  of  making 
money. 

By  placing  an  active  member  of  a  great  banking 
house  on  the  inside  of  each  one  of  many  large  enter- 
prises or  exploiting  corporations  it  is  possible  to  exert 
an  effective  influence  on  all  financial  matters  as  well 
as  on  questions  of  peace  <md  war,  these  resting 
fundamentally  on  finance.  It  was  shown  in  this 
investigation  that  "by  means  of  interlocking  direc- 

97 


98  WAR  AND  WASTE 

torates  eighteen  financial  institutions  in  New  York, 
Chicago,  and  Boston  are  dominant  factors  in  the 
management  of  134  corporations  with  an  aggregate 
capital  of  $25,325,000,000."  Five  of  these  in  New 
York  through  344  interlocking  directorates  have 
relations  with  allied  or  subsidiary  corporations  hav- 
ing resources  amounting  to  $22,245,000,000. 

Whether  this  great  force  of  unanimity  in  finance 
is  used  for  good  or  evil  in  our  country,  I  do  not 
pretend  to  say.  It  certainly  makes  for  stability. 
It  allows  great  facilities  for  money  making  without 
any  actual  increase  of  values.  It  provides  machin- 
ery for  a  sort  of  financial  suction.  When  the  inter- 
locking directorates  choose  to  work  together,  their 
simultaneous  rise  and  fall  bears  a  likeness  to  a 
gigantic  pump,  which  draws  up  gold  as  well  as  water. 

In  this  Pujo  investigation,  the  central  figure  of 
this  combination  is  quoted  as  testifying  that  "a 
bank  which  should  use  its  power  for  evil  would 
promptly  lose  it  by  the  withdrawal  of  deposits." 
This  statement  is  true  in  a  limited  sense  only. 
That  banks  are  kept  from  over-reaching  by  the 
alertness  of  their  depositors  is  certainly  not  the  fact. 
This  statement,  at  the  most,  applies  to  one  form  of 
evil  only  —  namely,  the  robbery  of  depositors. 
Of  this  the  great  bankers  have  never  been  accused. 
The  question  at  issue  is  that  of  taking  advantage 


INTERLOCKING  DIRECTORATE        99 

of  the  public  at  large,  using  the  money  of  depositors 
to  the  prejudice  of  other  interests.  So  long  as  banks 
or  corporations  make  money  for  those  on  the  inside, 
depositors  and  stockholders  will  certainly  stay  with 
them.  The  legitimacy  of  the  "Interlocking  Direc- 
torate" is  to  be  tested  by  its  effect  on  the  interests 
of  those  who  are  outside. 

It  is  likewise  not  an  answer  to  criticisms  of  Ameri- 
can conditions  to  say  that  the  "Interlocking  Direc- 
torate" is  a  successful  method  in  Europe,  that  it  is 
the  avowed  policy  of  all  the  other  great  nations  of 
the  world,  that  it  is  everywhere  else  "approved  by 
governments  and  public  sentiment  as  essential  to 
the  great  enterprises  of  these  days  whether  govern- 
mental or  corporate. " 

It  is  indeed  the  method  of  Europe.  It  is  highly 
developed  in  Europe  because  it  fits  perfectly  into 
schemes  of  imperialism.  In  Europe,  as  in  America, 
it  promotes  financial  stability.  It  also  provides  for 
the  steady  movement  of  money  from  "the  careless 
hands  of  the  public"  to  the  vaults  of  the  rich.  It  is 
especially  the  agency  by  which  the  resources  of  weak 
or  barbarous  countries  are  drawn  to  swell  the  wealth 
of  the  great  centres  of  exploiting  Christendom.  The 
degradation  of  "World  Politics"  to  the  ape  and 
tiger  level  is  accomplished  by  such  means.  Through 
its  agency  war  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  emotional- 


ioo  WAR  AND  WASTE 

ism  or  of  patriotism.  Where  war  is  permitted  it  is 
strictly  a  matter  of  business.  Where  war  would 
interfere  with  business,  it  cannot  break  out. 

The  French  have  a  motto  when  a  crime  is  com- 
mitted :  Cherchez  la  femme  —  Find  the  woman. 
Now  when  war  is  threatened  or  a  revolution  breaks 
out  —  Cherchez  le  banquier  —  Seek  the  banker,  more 
exactly  the  entrepreneur,  the  promoter  of  enterprise. 
Find  out  who  makes  money  from  the  disturbance, 
and  then  trace  the  chain  of  interlocking  director- 
ates which  lead  to  the  centre. 

The  late  Italian  war  had  its  motive,  in  a  large 
part  at  least,  in  the  speculations  of  the  Bank  of 
Rome.  The  seizure  of  Tripoli  once  decided  upon, 
the  unwilling  king  and  the  ever-ready  populace  were 
drawn  into  it.  From  Prof.  R.  G.  Usher's  studies  it 
would  appear  that  both  British  and  German  in- 
terests favoured  or  at  least  tolerated  this  war,  as 
both  sides  hoped  to  win  Italy  to  its  side  in  the 
greater  contest  which  is  always  impending  and  which 
can  never  come.  In  the  final  outcome,  Italy  was  left 
on  the  side  of  the  Triple  Alliance,  apparently  be- 
cause Germany  had  the  greater  influence  in  abating 
the  resistance  of  Turkey. 

The  Balkan  war  was  started  with  a  fine  stage- 
play  of  patriotic  and  humanitarian  feeling  in  the 
foreground,  while  behind  it  was  a  plebeian  per- 


INTERLOCKING  DIRECTORATE      101 

versity  and  intensity  on  which  the  powers  had  not 
counted. 

But  this  war  was  certainly  tolerated  and  en- 
couraged by  the  masters  of  Europe.  The  initial 
suggestion  came  apparently  from  the  Russian 
Minister  (Hartwig)  at  Belgrade,  but  the  plan  of 
expelling  the  Turk  by  force  found  favour  both  in 
Paris  and  Berlin.  The  final  victory  rests  with  the 
French  bankers:  these  were  able  to  furnish  war 
funds  and  war  armament  at  a  time  when  Germany 
and  Austria  were  verging  on  financial  distress.  Thus 
Austria  at  the  end,  through  losing  control  of  the 
Balkans,  failed  in  the  final  aim  of  a  half  century  or 
more  of  intrigue. 

"The  Sick  Man  of  Europe"  has  passed  away  at 
last,  but  the  details  of  his  demise  are  still  conditioned 
on  Servian  and  Bulgarian  obstinacy,  and  on  the 
necessity  of  safeguarding  the  many  ventures  and 
concessions  which  the  Banque  Ottomane  and  its 
French  syndicates  have  in  Macedonia  and  Thrace. 
And  as  French  interests  virtually  control  Turkey 
in  Europe,  so  is  Turkey  in  Asia  dominated  by 
the  Deutsche  Bank,  that  "nation  within  a  na- 
tion," which  replaces  the  Sultan  as  master  of 
the  rest  of  his  domain.  According  to  a  Turkish 
writer,  "Darius":  "This  bank  drains  for  itself 
the  riches  of  the  land,  exhausting  not  the  working 


102  WAR  AND  WASTE 

class  alone,  but  a  whole  nation,  which  is  dying  from 
its  operations. " 

A  little  war  helps  those  who  fish  in  troubled 
waters.  A  great  war  ruins  credit,  and  may  force 
rival  interlocking  directorates  into  unprofitable 
conflicts  with  each  other.  There  is  no  profit  in 
fighting  lions  against  tigers  or  foxes  against  wolves. 
It  is  only  in  weak  and  succulent  nations  that  a 
revolution  may  pay  its  way. 

Of  the  hundreds  of  revolutions,  big  and  little,  in 
the  smaller  countries  of  America,  probably  nine  out 
of  every  ten  have  had  behind  them  the  money  of  some 
syndicate,  American,  German,  English,  or  French, 
with  a  concession  of  some  sort  at  stake.  Brigandage 
pure  and  simple  is  not  profitable  nor  possible  for 
long,  unless  maintained  by  some  interest  working 
toward  definite  results.  Most  of  the  petty  revolts 
in  tropical  America  would  come  to  a  speedy  end  if 
foreign  adventurers  and  syndicates  should  each 
and  all  confine  themselves  to  legitimate  business  — 
that  is,  to  affairs  which  will  bear  publicity. 

I  find  in  a  table  bearing  date  of  1904  that  the 
Deutsche  Bank  of  Berlin  was  represented  by  inter- 
locking directorates  in  240  different  industrial, 
transportation,  or  exploiting  companies.  The  Dres- 
dener  Bank  was  represented  in  191,  the  Bank  of 
Schaaffhaussenscher  in  211,  the  Darmstadter  Bank 


INTERLOCKING  DIRECTORATE      103 

in  161,  and  the  Disconto  Gesellschaft  in  no.  These 
figures  may  be  doubled  by  this  time,  and  each  of 
these  banks  has  many  branches  or  minor  establish- 
ments over  which  it  has  entire  control.  Doubtless, 
too,  these  and  other  banks  in  Berlin,  Paris,  London, 
and  Vienna  interlock  with  each  other.  They  cer- 
tainly connect  with  the  great  armament  syndicates, 
so  powerful  and  so  profitable,  of  Krupp,  Schneider, 
Armstrong,  Vickers-Maxim,  and  the  rest.  Still  more 
important  and  more  significant  is  the  fact  that  these 
various  establishments,  by  interlocking  arrange- 
ments, stand  very  close  to  the  ruling  powers  in  their 
respective  nations. 

In  Germany  we  may  fairly  regard  the  emperor  as 
the  centre  of  a  gigantic  mutual  investment  organiza- 
tion, with  its  three  branches  of  aristocracy,  mili- 
tarism, and  finance,  all  the  powers  of  the  state, 
military  as  well  as  diplomatic,  being  placed  at  the 
service  of  the  combined  interests.  In  so  far  as  other 
nations  are  "Powers,"  the  fact  is  due  to  the  in- 
fluence of  similar  interlocking  combinations.  This 
is  certainly  true  in  England,  France,  and  Russia, 
and  the  "Dollar  Diplomacy"  of  the  United  States, 
now  happily  a  matter  of  the  past,  was  based  on  the 
same  fundamental  principle. 

By  such  means,  the  foreign  policy  of  each  of  these 
great  Powers  is  directed  to  safeguard  the  ventures 


104  WAR  AND  WASTE 

of  those  great  banks  which  make  a  specialty  of  for- 
eign risks.  In  Europe  the  governments  everywhere 
frankly  make  open  cause  with  the  interests.  The 
foreign  offices  are  therefore  for  the  most  part  little  more 
than  the  firm  names  under  which  these  interlocking 
syndicates  transact  their  foreign  business. 

Whatever  the  virtues  or  the  evils  of  the  system 
of  interlocking  directorates,  the  evils  at  least  are 
greatly  accentuated  when  the  Government  becomes 
a  part  of  the  system,  extending  its  operations  in  for- 
eign lands  by  means  of  secret-treaties,  by  official  guar- 
antees, by  threats,  and  by  force  of  arms.  A  large 
percentage^of  the  international  troubles  of  the  world 
arise  from  this  one  source,  the  use  of  governmental 
authority  to  promote  private  schemes  of  spoliation. 

Once  rid  of  the  "sphere  of  influence"  and  of  the 
war  machinery  which  upholds  it,  and  once  rid  of  the 
war-right  of  piracy  at  sea,  we  could  look  with  con- 
fidence toward  the  dawn  of  international  peace. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  HIGHER  POLITICS 

THE  "higher  politics"  of  the  day,  the  politics 
of  international  relations,  seems  to  lie  mainly 
outside  the  realm  of  morals.  It  runs  on  all 
fours  with  the  ape  and  the  tiger.  The  moral  law 
would  be  fatal  to  its  success. 

In  its  main  function,  its  interest  lies  in  helping  to 
place  capital  of  individuals  in  foreign  lands,  where  by 
threat  or  persuasion  it  shall  be  made  to  yield  better 
returns  than  investments  at  home. 

Whether  the  investment  be  in  railways,  forests, 
plantations,  tobacco  monopolies,  armament,  war 
loans,  or  war  debt,  the  motive  remains  the  same; 
private  exploitation  at  the  public  cost.  It  means 
the  profit  for  the  individual,  the  risk  for  the  nation. 
The  chancelleries  of  Europe  are  the  agents  under  the 
cloak  of  whose  dignity  the  schemes  are  carried 
through.  In  some  cases,  it  may  be  said  with  large 
truthfulness,  the  foreign  office  of  the  nation  is  the 
firm  name  under  which  its  exploiters  and  loan  agents 
carry  on  their  own  business.  To  lift  the  cloak  would 

105 


io6  WAR  AND  WASTE 

give  the  world  a  new  idea  of  imperialism  and  its 
accessories.  It  might  even  bring  about  a  revulsion 
which  for  a  time  would  shake  the  strongholds  of 
privilege. 

Referring  to  motives  in  the  Balkan  war,  Prof. 
Francis  Delaisi  of  Paris  says: 

"The  French  public,  which  does  not  read  the 
details,  has  an  impression  of  the  actual  crisis  which 
is  singularly  inexact.  It  imagines  a  France  neutral, 
disinterested,  preoccupied  with  the  soothing  of 
passions,  with  moderation  of  demands,  and  with  the 
safe-guarding  of  peace. " 

Delaisi  goes  on  to  show  that  there  is,  instead,  a 
very  active  France  inside  of  France,  a  France  behind 
the  scenes  busily  turning  the  present  crisis  to  its  own 
financial  advantage,  a  France  which,  in  this  period 
of  destruction  of  life  and  property  called  war,  is 
playing  a  large  and  carefully  adjusted  part. 

The  debt  of  Turkey,  for  example,  is  mainly  held  by 
French  people  represented  by  French  banks.  The 
Balkan  allies  are  armed  with  French  guns,  and  sup- 
ported by  loans  received  from  Paris.  These  in  turn 
control  the  details  of  their  financial  affairs.  The 
French  Banque  Ottomane  at  Constantinople  is  a 
"sort  of  gigantic  siphon  which  draws  forth  millions 
of  the  savings  of  Europe  and  pours  them  out  on  the 
Golden  Horn.  By  its  operations,  $200,000,000  of 


THE  HIGHER  POLITICS  107 

Turkish  bonds  have  been  placed  in  Europe,  two 
thirds  of  this  amount  in  France.  But  such  a  bank 
does  not  stop  with  borrowings.  It  secures  the  best 
concessions  of  mines,  railways,  quays,  ports,  and 
enterprises  of  all  sorts.  Turkey  is  a  land  naturally 
rich  and  ill-exploited.  The  temptation  is  great  to  say 
to  the  sultan,  always  short  of  money:  *  Grant  us 
these  concessions;  if  not,  no  loans. ": 

Thus  French  capital,  according  to  Delaisi,  controls 
most  of  the  railways  of  Turkey,  the  Salonica-Con- 
stantinople  road,  the  Smyrna-Cassaba  road,  the  road 
from  Jaffa  to  Jerusalem,  and  from  Damascus  to 
Hameah.  It  has  the  monopoly  of  the  sale  of  tobacco 
throughout  Turkey.  It  owns  the  quays  of  Con- 
stantinople, the  port  of  Salonica,  the  mines  of 
Heracleus  and  of  Balia-Karandin,  the  water  system 
of  Constantinople,  the  gas  and  lighting  systems  of 
many  cities,  and  a  host  of  minor  enterprises,  the 
dividends,  in  most  cases,  guaranteed  by  the  State. 
Turkey  has  thus  become  a  tool  for  foreign  exploi- 
tations of  its  properties  and  of  its  people;  and  this, 
over  and  above  all  the  exactions  of  its  own,  with 
the  fortunes  of  war  which  affect  the  people  but  not 
their  exploiters,  the  relations  of  these  companies  will 
pass  over  the  Balkan  allies.  The  disappearance  of 
sovereignty  is  not  allowed  to  cancel  debts.  It  is  a 
triumph  of  diplomacy  that  the  "Sick  Man  of 


io8  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Europe"  is  at  last  allowed  to  die,  and  this  without 
discommoding  his  internal  parasites,  for  whose  sake 
he  had  been  kept  alive  for  the  thirty-five  years,  since 
the  Treaty  of  Berlin. 

But  France  does  not  stand  alone  in  these  relations. 
The  Banque  de  1'Orient  looks  after  the  exploiting 
interests  of  Austria.  The  Deutsche  Bank  in  Con- 
stantinople has  furnished  its  part  of  the  loans  which 
have  kept  up  the  sultan's  "internal  deficit,"  receiv- 
ing in  return  not  only  the  usury  always  demanded  of 
derelict  nations,  but  orders  for  Krupp  arms,  for  rails, 
tramways,  and  the  variety  of  concessions  which 
marks  the  successful  "dollar  diplomacy"  of  a  great 
foreign  office.  The  National  Bank  of  Turkey  of 
Sir  Ernest  Cassel  has  been  founded  to  care  for 
British  "interests"  in  this  process  of  disintegration. 

Most  important  of  all  the  great  concessions  over 
which  the  powers  are  wrangling  is  the  great  Bagdad 
Railway  from  Constantinople  to  the  Persian  Gulf. 
The  nations  have  come  to  diplomatic  "blows"  over 
this;  nothing  more,  for  great  war  would  spoil  every- 
thing. Sooner  or  later,  no  doubt,  this  concession 
will  receive  its  due  adjustment.  By  all  the  laws  of 
audacity,  the  end  should  be  that  Turkey  in  Asia 
should  become  a  German  Egypt.  There  might  be 
worse  misfortune,  for  Turks  as  well  as  for  their 
subject  races. 


THE  HIGHER  POLITICS  109 

Meanwhile  the  Balkan  war  goes  on  as  a  side  issue, 
with  its  patriotisms,  its  horrors,  and  its  sacrifices. 
The  final  result  lies  with  the  agents  of  the  various 
conflicting  interests. 

Usual  desired  ends  are  reached  with  war,  or  as  in 
Morocco,  by  a  war  of  such  low  intensity  that  the 
world  hears  little  of  it.  The  inside  motive  of  the 
war  in  Tripoli  seems  to  lie  with  the  Banca  di  Roma 
and  its  real-estate  investments. 

This  war  is  perhaps  a  case  of  "now  or  never"  as  the 
close  season  for  wars  of  spoliation  is  soon  coming  on. 

Norman  Angell  imagines  an  Englishman  watching 
the  coronation  procession  of  soldiers  of  all  races, 
and  saying: 

"I  own  India,  Africa,  and  the  Antipodes,  the 
islands  of  the  tropic  seas,  the  snows  of  the  north, 
the  jungles  of  far  continents,  and  I  am  starving  for  a 
crust  of  bread.  I  rule  all  the  black  millions  from 
which  these  legions  have  been  drawn.  My  word 
is  law  in  half  a  world,  and  a  negro  savage  turned  from 
me  in  disgust  when  I  cringed  before  him  for  alms." 

The  reason  for  this  is  plain.  Imperial  England  is 
not  the  Englishman's  land.  Those  who  rule  the  sea 
and  those  who  pay  the  taxes  are  not  on  speaking 
terms  with  each  other.  It  is  the  many  that  bear 
the  burdens.  It  is  the  few  who  gather  the  rewards  so 
profusely  strewn  on  "the  steep  road  of  high  empire." 


I  io  WAR  AND  WASTE 

The  governments  of  the  world  take  the  risks  of 
imperialism.  The  great  trading,  mining,  and  ex- 
ploiting corporations  receive  the  gains.  In  almost 
every  large  transaction  of  any  government,  there  is 
this  constant  source  of  confusion.  What  the  nation 
expends  should  be  balanced  by  what  the  nation 
receives.  It  is  not  enough  to  estimate  "our  out- 
goes" on  the  one  hand  and  "our  receipts  "on  the 
other  when  the  outgoes  are  drains  on  the  public  funds, 
and  the  receipts  are  private  gains.  This  fallacy  of 
administration  may  be  found  on  every  hand  in  con- 
nection with  almost  every  item  of  public  expenditure. 
Public  expenditure  turned  to  private  gain  is  the  very 
essence  of  privilege,  and  privilege  wherever  found  is 
the  betrayer  of  justice,  the  antithesis  of  democracy. 
Where  privilege  exists  it  violates  the  principle  of 
equality  before  the  law.  In  imperial  exploitation  a 
thousand  little  streams  lead  from  home  activities 
to  swell  the  wealth  drawn  from  overseas. 

The  British  navy  among  other  things  is  supposed 
to  safeguard  the  Indian  trade.  The  actual  profits 
of  this  trade  cannot  much  exceed  the  part  of  naval 
expenditures  engaged  in  insuring  it. 

But  this  cost  is  paid  by  the  British  people,  while 
the  profits  of  trade  accrue  to  just  those  few  among  all 
British  citizens  who  are  least  likely  to  divide  with  the 
people  at  large,  who  have  made greatfortunes  possible. 


THE  HIGHER  POLITICS  HI 

The  enrichment  of  a  few  at  the  public  cost  is  in 
brief  the  purpose  and  the  result  of  governmental 
promotion  of  outside  interests.  Such  exploitation 
finds  its  comfortable  environment  in  militarism,  in 
aristocracy,  in  a  great  armament,  in  protection,  in 
subsidies,  in  largess  to  the  poor  as  a  substitute  for 
justice,  in  the  limitation  of  war  to  commercial 
spoliation,  in  armed  peace  with  "a  sword  in  one 
hand  and  a  withered  olive  branch  in  the  other." 
It  is  not  averse  to  arbitration,  nor  to  a  mitigation  of 
the  evils  of  war,  using  war  menace  at  times  as  one  of 
its  tools  of  trade. 

Such  exploitation  is  opposed  to  the  spirit  of 
democracy.  Equality  before  the  law,  equal  access 
to  opportunity,  the  absence  of  privilege,  and  an  even 
justice  between  men  and  interests  are  essentials  of 
democracy. 

There  is  no  wrong  in  exploitation  as  such.  There 
is  no  reason  why  the  people  of  the  earth  should  not 
ultilize  its  resources.  The  evil  lies  in  the  use  of  the 
nation  as  a  tool  for  private  gains.  This  evil  is  in- 
tensified in  proportion  as  private  intrusion  is  backed 
up  by  armed  force. 

A  "six-power  loan"  represents  not  merely  so 
much  borrowed  money,  a  dangerous  factor  in  itself. 
ItjDpens  a  way  for  competing  private  interests  to 
control,  not  for  its  good,  the  affairs  of  a  struggling 


ii2  WAR  AND  WASTE 

nation.  The  "sphere  of  influence"  works  double 
injury  on  the  intruding  nation,  made  a  catspaw  for 
private  gain,  and  on  the  nation  exploited  in  which 
the  sovereignty  of  its  own  people  is  endangered. 

The  spirit  of  exploitation  contends  against  democ- 
racy just  as  vigorously  in  our  Republic  as  in  the 
states  of  Europe,  but  with  this  difference:  our  inter- 
nal trade  vastly  exceeds  in  importance  all  foreign  ex- 
ploitation, and  our  people  still  hold  the  whip  hand. 
"For,  after  all,  this  is  the  people's  country,"  and  still, 
as  in  earlier  days,  "America  means  opportunity." 


CHAPTER  VII 
NAVAL  WASTE 

A  PETITION,  bearing  date  of  January  14, 
1913,  has  been  sent  out  by  the  Navy  League 
of  the  United  States,  asking  for  "legislation 
of  the  utmost  importance  regarding  the  personnel 
of  the  navy,  and  for  a  Council  of  National  Defense 
to  decide  on  a  continuing  and  consistent  programme 
of  naval  construction."  It  is  further  stated  that 
"to  fix  the  country's  standard,  the  proposed  Council 
of  National  Defense  should  take  into  consideration 
the  naval  programmes  and  military  strength  of  pos- 
sible opponents." 

To  this,  as  thus  worded,  there  need  be  no  serious 
objection,  if  a  few  modifying  phrases  are  added. 
It  certainly  seems  reasonable  that  a  man  qualified 
to  be  an  admiral  should  reach  that  rank  while  still 
in  the  prime  of  life.  Also  there  is  no  evident  rea?on 
why  a  man  unfitted  to  command  a  fleet  should  ever 
become  admiral. 

It  seems  indeed  desirable  to  have  a  Council  of 
National  Defense,  but  it  should  go  much  further  than 

"3 


ii4  WAR  AND  WASTE 

is  suggested  by  the  Navy  League.  For  example,  it 
should  show  why,  how,  and  in  what  degree  "national 
defense"  by  force  of  arms  is  necessary  or  justifiable. 
It^should  not  merely  consider  "  the  naval  programmes 
and  military  strength  of  possible  opponents  "  —  a  very 
simple  matter  of  statistics,  when  we  agree  who  the 
"opponents"  are.  It  should  enter  into  the  con- 
sideration of  international  relations,  of  the  real  or 
assigned  causes  of  military  extension  in  other  nations, 
and  of  the  financial  resources  from  which  each  nation 
must  draw  its  military  exactions.  For  it  is  apparent 
that" the  military  strength"  of  a  nation  is  not  wholly 
nor  even  mainly  gauged  by  the  extent  of  its  army  or 
navy.  In  the  end  all  such  matters  are  determined 
by  the  sums  of  money  which  may  be  borrowed  for 
military  purposes  or  which  may  be  exacted  through 
taxation. 

The  principal  function  of  such  a  council  should 
therefore  be  judicial,  and  its  subject  matter  would  lie 
mainly  in  the  domain  of  international  economics 
and  finance.  Military  and  naval  strategy  would 
necessarily  be  a  secondary  consideration,  and  the 
direction  of  these  should,  of  course,  lie  in  the  hands 
of  trained  specialists.  But  the  council  itself  should 
be  composed  primarily  of  statesmen  representing  the 
essential  interests  of  the  nation,  the  most  important 
of  which  is  the  maintenance  of  international  peace. 


NAVAL  WASTE  115 

Our  council  should  therefore  consider  all  possible 
sources  of  friction  with  other  nations  and  the  means 
of  honourably  removing  them  without  recourse  to 
violence  or  to  the  suggestion  of  violence.  The 
strengthening  bonds  of  internationalism,  the  in- 
fluence of  common  interests,  and  the  rapidly  growing 
opposition  of  commerce  and  of  banking  to  war  and 
warlike  demonstrations  should  be  estimated.  These 
considerations  belong  to  the  domain  of  statesman- 
ship and  but  little  to  that  of  militarism.  In  any 
case,  a  wide  survey  of  actual  conditions  should  be 
the  foundation  of  national  policy.  The  mere  con- 
sideration of  "the  military  and  naval  strength  of 
possible  opponents"  is  but  a  very  small  side  issue  in 
the  general  problem.  No  decision  of  a  Council  of 
National  Defense  could  be  acceptable  to  our  people 
unless  based  on  the  broad  considerations  indicated 
above. 

Attached  to  this  petition  we  find  "Sixty-seven 
Reasons  for  a  Strong  Navy."  To  these  we  turn 
with  interest,  and  with  disappointment.  What  "a 
strong  navy"  is,  is  nowhere  suggested.  Apparently 
we  have  never  had  one.  Or  perhaps  strength  is  only 
relative,  consisting  in  maintaining  the  second  or  third 
place  among  nations.  But  the  vital  question  of 
to-day  is,  why  our  navy  need  keep  its  present  size 
and  cost.  Why  need  it  be  made  larger?  I  do  not 


u6  WAR  AND  WASTE 

find  in  the  "sixty-seven  reasons"  a  single  one  which 
seems  to  bear  on  either  of  these  points. 

To  the  ordinary  taxpayer,  the  United  States  navy 
seems  very  large  already.  Its  columns  of  statistics 
indicate  an  amazing  growth.  Its  cost,  in  expense, 
in  round  numbers,  was,  in  1881,  $13,000,000  per  year; 
in  1891,  $22,000,000;  in  1901,  $56,000,000;  in  1911, 
$121,000,000;  in  1912,  $130,00,00,  in  1913  in  face 
of  a  strong  movement  toward  economy  $146,000,000. 
The  Navy  League  does  not  state  how  much  more  is 
to-day  necessary  for  "a  strong  navy,"  but  from 
other  sources  we  learn  that  $150,000,000  to  $160,- 
000,000,000  would  be,  for  the  time,  an  acceptable 
compromise  figure. 

The  British  fleet,  intended  hitherto  to  double  that 
of  any  possible  opponent,  cost,  in  1881,  $51,000,000; 
in  1891,  $69,000,000;  in  1901,  $138,000,000,  and  in 
1911,  $203,000,000.  In  Germany,  under  a  very 
realistic  threat  of  destruction  of  her  commerce  and 
under  the  spur  of  her  all-powerful  armament  syn- 
dicates and  military  aristocracy,  the  navy  expenses 
stood  at  $11,000,000  in  1881;  $23,000,000  in 
1891;  $38,000,000  in  1901;  and  $115,000,000  in 
1911.  Thus  the  navy  of  the  United  States  is  now 
second  in  cost,  whether  in  effectiveness  or  not,  to 
the  navy  of  Great  Britain  alone.  With  no  super- 
fluous marine  stations  to  care  for,  the  German  navy 


NAVAL  WASTE  117 

may  have  greater  actual  power.  In  any  event,  that 
of  the  United  States  is  one  of  the  most  costly  insti- 
tutions ever  projected.  Its  yearly  expenses  exceed 
the  endowment  revenues  of  all  the  universities  of  the 
world  —  the  foundations  of  intellectual  advance- 
ment. They  exceed  the  cost  of  maintenance  of  all 
industrial  and  technical  schools  of  all  grades,  includ- 
ing all  colleges  of  engineering  and  agriculture  —  the 
foundation  of  the  world's  industrial  advancement. 

Now  if  a  "strong  navy"  demands  all  this  and  more 
than  this,  there  must  be  strong  reasons  in  its  favour, 
both  absolute  and  relative.  To  give  reasons  for 
having  "a  navy"  does  not  suffice.  We  must  all 
admit  that  a  seafaring  nation  requires  a  navy.  It 
must  do  its  part  in  international  police,  in  removing 
the  dangers  of  the  sea,  in  rendering  assistance  to 
citizens  in  trouble  abroad,  in  so  far  as  this  can  be 
done  without  invading  the  actual  sovereignty  of 
other  nations. 

Some  thirty  of  the  "sixty-seven  reasons"  would  be 
met  by  the  moderate  and  efficient  navy  of  1881,  just 
as  well  as  by  the  ten  times  more  costly  one  of  1912. 
The  fact  that  Great  Britain  spends  still  more  than  we 
do  and  that  Germany  has  about  overtaken  us  is 
likewise  not  an  argument  in  itself.  It  is  for  us  to 
show  some  very  valid  reasons  why  we  should  strive 
to  keep  in  the  race  with  these  militant  nations  whose 


n8  WAR  AND  WASTE 

problems  and  purposes  are  very  different  from  ours. 
To  argue  that  a  navy  is  useful  does  not  prove  that 
one  twice  as  costly  would  be  twice  as  useful. 

"The  navy  is  our  main  defense. "  This  is  true  in  a 
military  sense  only,  but  waiving  that  point  for  a 
moment  we  ask  for  the  completion  of  the  sentence: 
defense  against  whom?  Of  the  hundreds  who  use 
this  phrase,  no  one  has  furnished  a  valid  answer. 
The  United  States  has  not  an  enemy  in  the  world. 
There  is  apparently  not  a  rival  nation  which  could 
fight  us  if  it  would,  or  would  fight  us  if  it  could.  We 
are  surrounded  by  peace,  which  cannot  be  broken 
except  by  ourselves.  Apparently  there  is  not  a 
nation  which  by  naval  attack  could  harm  us,  even 
without  a  "strong  navy,"  to  a  degree  in  any  way 
comparable  to  the  injury  to  itself,  through  the  loss 
of  our  friendship,  the  loss  of  our  trade. 

It  is  said  that  once  a  Spanish  commandant  at  the 
Presidio  of  San  Francisco,  wishing  properly  to  salute 
a  British  ship,  sent  on  board  the  vessel  to  borrow  the 
necessary  powder.  In  like  fashion  it  would  appear 
that  the  large  nations  in  Europe  or  Asia,  overloaded 
with  debt  and  therefore  short  of  funds,  must  first 
borrow  money  in  New  York  before  any  of  them  could 
make  war  on  the  United  States.  Outside  of  New 
York  the  sole  important  reservoirs  of  money  are 
London  and  Paris. 


NAVAL  WASTE  119 

It  is  not  clear  that  we  should  concern  ourselves 
with  what  other  nations  are  doing  in  this  neck  to 
neck  Marathon  race,  which  is  entailing  such  risks  on 
Europe,  unless  we  are  brought  also  into  jeopardy. 
That  the  naval  competition  of  Europe  injures  us  is 
plain,  not  that  it  involves  a  war-menace  to  us,  but 
that  it  threatens  the  destruction  of  credit,  and  that  it 
has  filled  the  world  atmosphere  with  war  talk  and 
war  scares  —  matters  opposed  to  the  well-being 
of  all  peoples. 

Because  every  dollar  spent  in  armament  strength- 
ens the  financial  interest  in  war,  because  it  gives 
more  volume  to  war  scares  and  war  talk,  we  believe 
that  the  war  armaments  of  the  world,  so  far  from 
being  a  national  defense,  constitute  in  each  of  the 
armored  countries  the  chief  actual  danger.  We 
cannot  say  that  increased  armament  makes  for 
peace,  when  plainly,  the  world  over,  it  makes  for 
war.  It  makes  for  peace  only  as  it  brings  about 
tax-exhaustion,  and  as  the  money-lenders  of  the 
world  are  no  longer  willing  to  consent  to  the  dangers 
of  conflict  between  any  two  of  the  great  nations. 

The  strained  relations  in  Europe  between  the 
Triple  Alliance  and  the  Triple  Entente  (due  pri- 
marily no  doubt  to  jealousy  of  rival  exploiters)  are 
being  enormously  accentuated  by  the  tremendous 
array  of  armament  the  nations  concerned  have 


Li20  WAR  AND  WASTE 

accumulated  under  the  guise  of  "national  defense." 
Every  additional  ship  adds  to  the  danger  of  war. 
The  great  conciliating  forces  of  internationalism  — 
the  real  defense  of  civilized  nations  —  have  been 
strained  as  they  have  rarely  been  before.  For  all 
this,  militarism  and  armament  building  have  been 
mainly  responsible.  War  is  the  business  of  armies 
and  navies,  and  their  aggregate  influence  the  world 
over  is  for  war. 

Great  Britain  has  made  the  historic  claim  to  the 
"Overlordship  of  the  Sea,"  with  the  power,  if  need 
be,  to  destroy  the  commerce  of  rivals,  as  she  once 
destroyed  that  of  Holland  and  deranged  that  of 
France.  Germany  has  expressed  her  resolve 
not  "to  lie  down  before  this  perpetual  menace." 
This  rivalry  has  become  in  itself  and  in  time 
of  peace  "a  great  European  calamity."  Per- 
haps but  one  greater  is  conceivable  —  that  of  open 
war. 

The  peace  of  dread  and  dreadnaughts  saves  men's 
lives,  it  is  true,  but  it  takes  from  them  freedom  and 
prosperity. 

The  unthinkable  cost  of  such  a  war  has  made  it 
virtually  impossible;  no  thanks,  however,  to  army 
or  navy.  A  better  feeling  appears  lately  in  the 
councils  of  Europe.  Apparently  this  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  Balkan  troubles  have  shown  somewhat 


NAVAL  WASTE  121 

of  the  depths  of  the  abyss  toward  which  militarism 
and  exploitation  were  driving. 

The  true  defense  of  any  nation  worth  defending 
must  lie  in  the  intelligence,  alertness,  and  resources 
of  its  people.  Along  with  this  go  the  increasing 
power  of  internationalism,  the  ties  of  common 
thought  and  aspiration,  and  most  immediately  the 
innumerable  bonds  woven  by  trade  and  by  the  com- 
mon interests  of  business,  small  as  well  as  great. 

We  should  look  upon  our  navy  as  a  contribution 
to  the  good  order  of  the  world.  It  is  a  natural  part  of 
a  future  international  police  which  shall  guarantee 
the  safety  of  life  and  property  at  sea  the  world  over. 
It  should  be  as  ready  to  protect  shipping  against 
icebergs  and  derelicts  as  to  ward  off  an  enemy  from 
the  coast. 

One  of  the  first  steps  in  this  direction  is  to  take 
away  from  the  navy  its  present  right  of  piracy  in 
time  of  war.  For  while  private  property  on  land  is 
now  immune,  the  merchant  ships  under  an  adver- 
sary's flag  may  still  become  a  prize  or  perquisite  of 
a  man-of-war.  There  is  no  justification  for  this 
anomaly.  The  relief  to  commerce  by  the  abrogation 
of  the  "prize"  system  would  take  away  much  of  the 
sting  of  international  rivalries,  and  the  commercial 
public  would  welcome  the  powerful  help  of  the  Navy 
League  in  achieving  this.  If  we  could  also  add  the 


122  WAR  AND  WASTE 

abatement  of  such  protective  tariffs  as  are  inten- 
tionally obstructive,  and  of  the  use  of  force  of  arms 
to  promote  private  spoliation  in  weak  countries, 
there  would  not  be  much  left  for  nations  to  wrangle 
over.  But  however  desirable  ultimately  the  absolute 
disarmament  of  nations  as  against  each  other,  we 
cannot  hope  to  reach  it  in  a  day  nor  in  a  generation. 
These  matters  proceed  by  slow  progress,  interrupted 
by  reaction;  we  are  in  a  period  of  relapse  at  present, 
when  reactionary  forces  seem  to  be  in  the  ascendant. 
But  this  very  fact  with  its  burdens  and  horrors  may 
be  counted  on  to  turn  the  balance  in  the  other  direc- 
tion. 

Neither  will  there  be  a  formal  federation  of  nations 
in  this  era.  Indeed,  federation  in  fact  will  come  long 
before  it  comes  in  name.  A  single  unified  world- 
government  with  centralized  rule  under  one  set  of 
men  at  some  one  place,  is  only  a  dream  —  and  not  a 
cheerful  dream  at  that.  What  the  world  needs  is 
more  self-control,  not  more  governmental  machinery. 

Nevertheless,  every  step  in  removing  injustice,  in 
eliminating  sources  of  friction,  in  extending  common 
interests,  as  the  postal  union,  the  telegraph  union, 
international  law,  international  police  duties,  inter- 
national conferences  and  congresses,  arbitration 
treaties  and  other  agreements  —  are  steps  in  the 
direction  of  the  passing  of  war.  To  this  end,  three 


NAVAL  WASTE  123 

great  contributing  agencies  are:  the  growth  of  the 
popular  conscience,  the  interlocking  of  personal 
interests,  and  the  ruinous  expense  which  the  progress 
of  science  has  brought  to  every  branch  of  military  art. 
And  by  the  same  token  each  one  of  the  six  reasons 
of  the  naval  circular  headed  as  "national  defense" 
is  more  or  less  fallacious.  As  already  noted  it  is  not 
true  that  "the  navy  is  our  main  defense,"  that  the 
navy  has  "21,000  miles  of  coast  to  defend,"  that 
"undefended  resources  invite  aggression."  All  this 
implies  a  medieval  relation  among  nations.  And  as 
to  the  second  of  these,  do  we  infer  that  the  need  of 
defense  is  proportional  to  the  length  of  the  coast- 
line? If  so,  our  coastline  is  nearly  forty  times  as 
long  as  that  of  Germany. 

The  United  States,  isolated  by  its  geography,  by  its 
democracy,  by  its  freedom  from  entangling  alliances, 
by  its  blood-kinship  with  all  the  European  nations, 
by  a  commanding  relation  to  European  commerce, 
is  apparently  beyond  all  need  of  such  protection. 
There  is,  in  fact,  something  primitive,  outworn,  and 
unprogressive  in  the  spectacle  of  a  civilized  nation 
composed  of  millions  of  clever  people  trusting  for  its 
defense  to  forts  and  ships.  With  all  the  resources 
of  business,  of  science,  of  education,  of  thought,  to 
depend  on  force  seems  a  lazy,  even  cowardly,  shrink- 
ing of  the  higher  possibilities  of  national  strength. 


124  WAR  AND  WASTE 

To  be  surrounded  by  armed  guards  "holding  the 
drop  "  on  all  commercial  rivals  is  not  a  lofty  concep- 
tion of  a  nation's  greatness.  This  attitude  has  been 
as  disastrous  to  England's  own  peace  of  mind  as  it 
has  been  menacing  to  the  world's  welfare.  For  the 
American  Republic  to  follow  needlessly  an  example 
like  this  would  seem  an  ignominious  surrender  of 
democracy  to  medievalism. 

The  eleven  "reasons"  drawn  from  history  are 
either  fallacious  or  irrelevant.  In  no  way  do  they 
relate  to  the  "strong  navy"  which  the  Navy  League 
advocates.  In  history,  no  nation  ever  had  such  a 
navy.  It  is  to-day  making  its  own  precedents. 

The  navy  did  not  "win  the  War  of  1812."  It 
was  not  "won"  at  all,  by  anybody. 

As  to  the  war  with  Spain,  the  less  said  the  better. 
But  surely  we  cannot  say  that  "the  Spanish  war 
would  never  have  taken  place  had  Spain  known  our 
navy's  strength."  The  United  States  took  the  initia- 
tive in  that  war,  and  for  motives  of  politics  and  busi- 
ness not  connected  with  the  military  situation.  This 
occurred  after  Spain,  through  our  minister  at  Madrid, 
had  agreed  to  grant  every  demand  of  the  United 
States,  including  autonomy  to  Cuba  and  arbitration 
of  all  differences,  including  the  loss  of  the  Maine.  In 
passing  it  may  be  remarked  that  much  of  the  disor- 
der in  Cuba  at  that  time  was  stimulated  in  New  York. 


NAVAL  WASTE  125 

The  peace  of  Great  Britain  and  that  of  Germany 
has  not  been  assured  by  navies,  and  only  in  part  and 
for  a  time  by  armies.  At  the  time  Germany  was 
overrun  by  the  French  she  was  split  up  into  a  number 
of  petty  warring  states.  In  peaceful  reunion  and 
cooperation  they  have  found  strength.  True,  to  a 
certain  point  the  army  of  Germany  for  a  while  served 
as  a  protection  from  neighbours  seeking  revenge  from 
humiliations  arranged  by  Bismarck.  But  beyond 
this  point,  the  overgrowth  of  army  and  navy  has 
given  an  impulse  toward  war.  This  the  firm  hand 
of  the  Kaiser,  with  the  caution  of  his  bankers,  has 
thus  far  held  in  check.  The  strength  of  Germany 
does  not  lie  in  her  military  domination,  which  is  on 
the  whole  a  burden,  but  in  her  system  of  education 
and  in  the  industry  of  her  people. 

The  weakness  of  China  hitherto  has  lain  in  the 
absence  of  justice,  of  education,  of  science,  of  interest 
in  public  affairs  on  the  part  of  her  people.  China 
could  have  no  greater  misfortune  than  to  develop, 
in  her  present  condition,  a  great  army  and  navy  with 
the  accompanying  war  atmosphere. 

The  failure  of  Turkey  lies  mainly  in  the  fact  that 
she  has  little  else  than  "war  atmosphere. "  Her  hold 
in  Europe  as  in  Asia  is  that  of  military  despotism, 
and  her  financial  excesses,  mostly  for  army  and  navy, 
have  plunged  her  hopelessly  into  debt. 


126  WAR  AND  WASTE  ' 

Concerning  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  cited  as  a 
source  of  danger,  if  it  be  such,  it  should  be  reexam- 
ined  and  internationalized.  Above  all,  it  would 
seem  that  it  might  be  merged  into  a  joint  pan- Ameri- 
can doctrine  in  which  Brazil,  Argentina,  Chile, 
Canada  and,  it  may  be,  Mexico  and  the  lesser  states 
should  have  part.  It  might  well  blend  with  the 
Drago  Doctrine,  most  salutary,  that  national  force 
of  arms  should  not  be  used  as  an  agency  to  uphold 
private  interests  in  foreign  lands.  To  invade  a 
district  because  of  a  dispute  over  a  more  or  less 
crooked  franchise  does  not  promote  international 
justice. 

The  United  States  has  no  vexatious  "attitude 
toward  possession  or  ownership  of  strategic  alien  har- 
bours and  coaling  stations."  The  attempt  to  make 
an  issue  out  of  imaginary  conditions  at  Magdalena 
Bay  put  the  United  States  Senate  in  an  absurd 
position.  The  preposterous  resolution  passed  by  the 
Senate  was  not  signed  by  the  President,  and  it  is 
therefore  null  and  void. 

"  Battleships  are  cheaper  than  battles. "  They  are 
likewise  inciters  of  battles.  Say  also:  "revolvers 
are  cheaper  than  tombstones. " 

The  cost  of  the  navy  is  not  a  "cheap  insurance." 
Beyond  a  certain  point  it  does  not  insure,  and  there 
is  no  evidence  that  the  bulk  of  the  property  it  insures 


NAVAL  WASTE  127 

could  ever  be  in  any  danger  whatever,  even  in  time 
of  war. 

As  to  the  cost  of  automobile  tires,  the  amount  is 
not  relevant,  for  the  owners  of  automobiles  pay  for 
the  tires,  not  the  nation  at  large.  Those  who  cannot 
afford  them  soon  cease  to  use  them. 

The  cost  of  insect  waste  through  the  destruction 
of  birds 'is,  as  Admiral  Wainwright  has  shown,  more 
than  the  cost  of  the  navy.  Yet  when  the  nation 
asks  for  money  to  check  such  destruction,  or  for  any 
similar  purpose  of  conservation,  sanitation,  or  econ- 
omy, the  appropriations  are  most  grudging  —  the 
army  and  navy  must  first  take  their  share. 

We  are  told  recently:  "If  the  Republican  party 
had  allowed  the  navy  to  run  down,  there  would  be 
European  battleships  headed  for  the  Mexican  ports 
at  this  time."  Does  anybody  believe  this?  Does 
any  one  believe  that  the  chief  influence  of  the  United 
States  in  international  affairs  is  created  by  her 
warships?  If  this  were  true,  it  would  certainly  be 
most  humiliating. 

That  "a  reduced  navy  would  impair  national 
credit,"  or  that  "a  navy  insures  against  unsettled 
conditions  of  trade  and  commerce,"  are  assertions 
merely."*  If  they  were  true,  they  would  be  subject 
to  limitations  of  reason.  The  credit  of  the  United 
States  is  already  higher  than  that  of  any  of  the 


128  WAR  AND  WASTE 

great  Powers.  The  financiers  of  the  world  can  read 
figures  of  debt  and  waste,  and  are  not  fooled  by 
appearances. 

Outside  the  sphere  of  war,  the  actual  duties  of  the 
American  navy  should  mostly  lie.  In  this  field  we 
freely  admit  it  has  had  an  honourable  record;  not  the 
least  of  this  has  been  the  service  of  the  good  old 
steamer  Albatross,  which  under  the  auspices  of  the 
navy  has  contributed  more  than  any  other  single 
agency  to  our  knowledge  of  the  deep  sea  and  its 
inhabitants.  At  the  same  time  we  must  admit  that 
most  of  these  duties  of  special  service  have  been 
thrown  on  the  smaller  and  cheaper  ships,  such  as 
those  of  the  present  Revenue  Cutter  Service  and  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey.  It  is  not  easy  to 
imagine  a  dreadnaught  serving  any  useful  purpose 
in  time  of  peace. 

"The  weight  of  a  powerful  navy  gives  force  to 
diplomacy"  —  on  the  well-known  principle  of  the 
"brass-knuckle."  "National  efficiency"  as  shown 
by  a  great  navy  is  no  evidence  that  our  side  in  a 
quarrel  is  just. 

It  may  be  true  that  treaties  and  agreements  in  the 
past  have  sometimes  failed,  especially  where  over- 
ridden by  the  military  caste,  and  by  the  interests  of 
exploitation.  It  may  be  that  war  is  sometimes  in- 
evitable, though  not  often  when  effort  is  put  forth 


NAVAL  WASTE  129 

to  make  it  a  last  resort  and  not  a  firs-t.  No  nation 
has  yet  refused  to  accept  a  decree  of  arbitration. 
The  interests  of  justice  demand  that  no  contestant 
be  at  the  same  time  judge  of  his  own  cause.  Arbi- 
tration treaties  serve  to  clinch  and  hold  public 
opinion  —  and  in  the  long  run  public  opinion  rules. 
War  is  only  a  man-made  convention  —  a  coarse, 
brutal,  and  blundering  way  of  settling  disputes.  It 
has  changed  its  form  and  character  all  down  through 
the  ages,  from  the  tribal  raids  to  the  "strangling  of 
Persia."  It  is  now  passing  because  the  taxpayers 
can  no  longer  afford  it;  and  in  its  last  struggles  it 
shows  itself  as  hard,  selfish,  and  venomous  as  it  did 
in  the  days  of  Alva  and  Wallenstein. 

"Negative  righteousness  means  abstaining  from 
evil,  but  positive  righteousness  may  require  a  fight 
against  evil."  There  is  no  evil  greater  than  war, 
and  the  one  honourable  fight  of  our  times  is  the 
struggle  to  relegate  this  to  the  place  of  last  resort. 
As  it  recedes,  the  great  navies  of  the  world  must 
recede  with  it. 

The  way  to  peace  lies  through  peace.  "Power 
and  Strength"  conjured  up  by  debts  never  to  be  paid, 
and  maintained  by  intolerable  taxation  the  world 
over,  have  no  essential  part  in  "the  noble  task  of 
peacemaker." 

There  are  two  groups  of  motives  behind  the  move- 


130  WAR  AND  WASTE 

ment  for  naval  extension,  the  one  barely  hinted  at 
in  the  naval  circular,  the  other  not  at  all;  but  both 
more  potent  than  any  of  the  "sixty-seven."  The 
circular  refers  to  the  fact  that  naval  extension  gives 
work  to  thousands  of  men.  It  also  gives  large 
revenues  on  many  millions  of  capital.  In  Europe, 
there  are  few  exploiting  firms  more  powerful  than  the 
great  "syndicates  for  war."  In  England,  according 
to  Mr.  G.  H.  Ferris,  one  man  in  every  six  is  in  some 
way  financially  interested  in  the  business  of  war  or 
war  preparation.  For  the  United  States,  we  have  no 
statistics;  and  our  armour-plate  industries  are  less  in 
the  public  eye  than  those  of  the  Krupps,  Schneiders, 
Creusots,  Armstrongs,  Vickers,  and  Maxims  of  Europe. 
It  is,  however,  an  axiom  in  economics  that  public 
money  paid  for  labour  is  money  wasted  unless  the 
product  be  useful  to  the  public  service.  That  war- 
ships cost  money  and  money  is  paid  to  capitalist 
and  to  labourer,  is  no  argument  for  building  them. 
Under  normal  conditions  the  same  money  and  labour 
might  run  in  useful  channels.  It  might  be  used  to 
restore  our  merchant  marine,  driven  out  of  existence 
by  our  "  protection  "  to  shipbuilders.  If  warships  are 
of  public  service,  to  build  them  is  a  productive  indus- 
try. If  they  are  not  necessary,  what  is  paid  for  them 
is  lost  as  much  as  though  it  were  directly  sunk  in 
the  sea. 


NAVAL  WASTE  131 

A  second  motive  not  indicated  in  the  naval  cir- 
cular is  that  of  giant  decoration.  We  may  say 
that  the  richest  nation  in  the  world  is  entitled  to  the 
costliest  and  most  showy  accessories.  The  world- 
wide parade  of  our  fleet  seems  to  have  had  some 
such  motive  behind  it.  It  has  shown  itself  openly 
in  the  desire  expressed  by  high  authority  to  build  the 
greatest  navy  in  the  world  —  just  for  greatness'  sake. 
It  appears  in  the  decision  of  Congress  to  make  the 
latest  battleships  —  the  Pennsylvania,  for  example  — 
bigger  than  any  other  ships  of  the  kind  in  the  world. 
One  might  argue  in  this  fashion:  "We  are  young 
and  strong  and  progressive;  we  will  beat  old  Europe 
at  her  own  game,  and  that  whether  or  not  the  game 
be  worth  the  candle. " 

There  is  no  touch  of  greed  in  this  view  of  naval 
greatness,  and  in  so  far  we  may  view  it  with  respect, 
even  though  we  may,  with  an  eminent  British 
statesman,  regard  it  as  "sheer  vulgarity."  But 
it  cuts  across  our  democratic  traditions  of  econ- 
omy and  simplicity.  It  ill  befits  a  practical  people 
whose  chief  ambition  is  expressed  in  "Success." 

To  sum  up:  Behind  nominal  reasons,  we  find  the 
world  over,  three  motives  or  groups  of  motives  for 
naval  expansion.  The  desire  "to  safeguard  peace" 
is  not  one  of  these  —  words  only,  when  used  in  this 
connection.  Actual  motives  are  (i)  caution  or  fear, 


132  WAR  AND  WASTE 

(2)  business  demands,  and  (3)  love  of  display.  The 
first  of  these  has  been  much  exaggerated  in  the 
interest  of  the  second.  The  second  and  third,  both 
unavowed,  are  very  real  and  very  human,  and  both 
must  be  reckoned  with  in  all  public  affairs. 

There  is  also  an  element  which  favours  extrava- 
gant appropriations  as  a  means  of  obstructing  tariff 
reduction.  The  United  States  stands  almost  alone 
among  nations  in  having  no  responsible  authority 
behind  expenditures.  It  has  as  yet  no  formal  bud- 
get, and  its  finances  are  at  the  mercy  of  shifting  and 
log-rolling  majorities.  Our  Republic  is  perhaps  the 
only  great  corporation  which  can  spend  money  with- 
out the  consideration  of  its  actual  income. 

The  navy  of  the  United  States  stands  near  the 
parting  of  the  ways.  Shall  it  continue  the  honoured 
servant  of  a  democratic  people,  or  shall  it  develop 
into  a  special  caste,  unchecked  as  to  expense,  un- 
interested in  any  matters  save  pomp  and  war? 

Militarism,  says  John  A.  Hobson,  survives  in  the 
world  because  it  "is  serviceable  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  plutocracy.  Its  expenditure  furnishes  a 
profitable  support  to  certain  strong  vested  interests. 
It  is  a  decorative  element  in  social  life,  and,  above  all, 
it  is  necessary  to  keep  down  the  pressure  of  the  forces 
of  internal  reform." 

Thus  far  our  naval  personnel,  as  a  whole,  has  been 


NAVAL  WASTE  133 

typical  of  our  democratic  citizenship.  It  has  never 
appeared  as  a  warrior  caste  claiming  special  privilege 
and  authority,  as  has  often  been  the  case  in  Europe. 
In  its  feelings  and  purposes  it  has  not  stood  apart 
from  the  body  of  the  people. 

In  a  recent  article  on  the  "Psychology  of  War," 
Dr.  Hugo  Miinsterberg  declares  that  "inner  waver- 
ing" as  to  righteousness  of  "relentless  fight"  should 
be  "absolutely  excluded  from  the  officer's  mind. 
He  will  not  deny  the  harm  and  the  losses  war  brings 
with  it.  But  at  the  same  time  he  will  be  deeply 
impressed  by  the  tremendous  moral  power  of  a 
national  self-defense  which  concentrates  the  energies 
of  the  whole  nation  in  loyalty  to  its  historical  mis- 
sion. He  must  grasp  the  fundamental  role  of  war 
in  the  history  of  mankind  as  the  great  vehicle  of 
progress,  as  the  great  eradicator  of  egotism,  as  the 
great  educator  to  a  spirit  of  sacrifice  and  duty." 
This  represents  an  ideal  alien  to  the  spirit  of  democ- 
racy —  and  we  trust  that  it  may  always  be  alien. 

An  American  soldier  at  the  end  of  a  great  cam- 
paign spoke  in  a  different  tone.  General  Sherman, 
in  1865,  used  these  words:  "I  confess  without 
shame  that  I  am  sick  and  tired  of  war.  Its  glory  is 
all  moonshine.  Even  success,  the  most  brilliant,  is 
over  dead  and  mangled  bodies,  the  anguish  and 
lamentation  of  distant  families  appealing  to  me  for 


134  WAR  AND  WASTE 

missing  sons,  husbands,  and  fathers.  It  is  only  those 
who  have  never  heard  a  shot,  nor  the  shrieks  and 
groans  of  wounded,  friend  or  foe,  who  cry  aloud  for 
more  blood,  more  vengeance,  more  desolation. " 

And  when,  we  may  ask  in  passing,  was  war  "an 
eradicator  of  egotism"  in  a  conquering  nation? 

"Defense"  at  present  certainly  absorbs  far  too 
much  of  our  national  attention  as  well  as  of  our 
national  revenues.  One  cause  of  this  lies  in  the 
initial  mistake  of  making  the  control  of  the  army 
and  later  that  of  the  navy  each  coordinate  depart- 
ments of  the  national  government.  In  normal 
relations  of  civilization  "national  defense"  might 
constitute  a  bureau  of  the  Department  of  State,  as 
national  sanitation  might  constitute  a  division  of  the 
Department  of  the  Interior.  Surely  Education, 
Sanitation,  Conservation,  Reclamation,  Administra- 
tive Economy,  are  quite  equal  in  importance  to  the 
need  of  physical  defense  against  external  foes. 

Our  great  Republic,  above  all  other  nations,  should 
be  rich  in  diplomatic  resources,  in  proportion  to  its 
escape  from  the  historical  evils  which  led  our  ances- 
tors to  leave  the  Europe  of  their  day  to  form  a  nation 
of  free  men  unhampered  by  caste,  tradition,  or 
privilege. 

Necessary  expenditures  in  any  line,  we  need  not 
call  into  question.  But  it  is  well  that  the  people 


NAVAL  WASTE  135 

should  consider  carefully  what  real  necessities  are. 
Whatever  goes  beyond  this  is  waste.  All  waste  calls 
for  more  waste  —  and  waste  everywhere  breeds 
corruption.  What,  then,  are  our  motives  for  steady 
and  enormous  increase  in  naval  expenditure?  The 
"sixty-seven  reasons"  furnish  no  satisfactory  ex- 
planations, no  valid  arguments.  The  fear  expressed 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  that  France  or  even 
Japan  may  get  ahead  of  us  has  no  pertinence  what- 
ever. To  know  the  purposes  of  France  or  the 
resources  of  Japan,  information  perfectly  accessible, 
fully  answers  the  implied  argument. 

We  should  not  go  on  building  great  floating  fort- 
resses simply  because  we  have  so  begun,  nor  be- 
cause England  builds,  or  Germany  builds,  or  France 
builds,  or  Austria,  nor  because  we  may  fall  to  third 
place  or  tenth  place  in  the  rush  if  we  do  not  build. 
There  is  no  apparent  rational  motive  in  such  action; 
and  if  valid  causes  lie  behind  it,  it  is  fair  that  these 
should  be  made  known. 

Moreover,  wars  do  not  come  by  accident,  nor 
without  warning,  nor  are  they  dispensations  of  an 
uncontrollable  Providence.  A  war  is  a  form  of 
world  sickness.  It  affects  for  ill  every  function  of 
civilization.  It  is  brought  on  by  human  blundering, 
and  it  is  quite  as  amenable  to  sanitation  as  any  other 
form  of  human  disorder. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
JAPAN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 

IT  IS  now  nearly  sixty  years  since  the  modern 
history  of  Japan  began.  The  arrival  of  Com- 
modore Perry  at  Kurihama,  the  downfall  of 
the  Shogun  and  the  restoration  of  the  Mikado  mark 
the  point  of  transition  from  feudal  Japan  to  the 
Japan  of  to-day. 

In  all  this  period,  the  Japanese  nation  has  been 
the  subject  of  intense  interest  to  the  cultivated 
people  of  America,  and  a  warm  sympathy  has  arisen 
between  those  people  of  each  nation  who  have  come 
to  understand  the  character  and  the  ideals  of  the 
other.  This  sympathy  has  been  kept  alive  by  the 
influence  of  Japanese  students  in  America,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  on  the  other  by  the  interest  of  those 
who  have  gone  as  missionaries,  as  teachers  or  ad- 
visers in  the  affairs  of  Japan. 

In  Asia  there  has  existed  for  many  years  a  division 
of  the  non-Japanese  into  two  sharply  defined  parties, 
or  one  may  say,  attitudes  of  mind,  the  pro-Japanese 
and  the  anti-Japanese.  The  disputes  of  these  two 

136 


JAPAN  AND  UNITED  STATES        137 

types  of  people  have  not  come  to  our  notice  until 
very  lately.  Till  within  the  last  decade,  American 
influence  was  almost  wholly  ranged  with  the  pro- 
Japanese.  Contributory  to  this  fact  was  our  general 
tendency  toward  sympathetic  interest  in  a  nation 
which  rose  to  constitutional  government  through 
influences  from  within.  The  Shimonoseki  incident 
followed  by  the  return  of  $750,000  annually  ex- 
torted, the  visit  of  General  Grant  marked  by  a 
modesty  then  without  precedent  among  world- 
famous  men,  the  aid  of  the  United  States  in  setting 
aside  the  obnoxious  consular  jurisdiction  in  the 
treaty  ports,  all  these  became  expressions  of  the 
friendly  attitude  of  America. 

The  Japanese  question,  as  it  is  now  called,  first 
rose  to  the  horizon  in  1899,  the  year  of  the  final 
abrogation  of  consular  jurisdiction.  The  needs  of 
cheap  labour  on  the  sugar  plantations  of  Hawaii  was 
great  and  constant.  Kalakaua,  the  king,  had  tried 
to  meet  this  need  by  "blackbirding"  expeditions 
among  the  islands  of  Polynesia.  The  steamship 
companies  followed  by  strenuous  efforts  among  the 
labourers  in  the  rice  fields  of  the  region  about  the 
Inland  Sea  of  Japan,  the  districts  of  Okayama, 
Hiroshima,  and  Yamaguchi.  By  their  insistence 
and  by  offers  of  real  wages  their  emigration  agencies 
brought  to  Hawaii  many  men  from  the  lowest 


138  WAR  AND  WASTE 

stratum  in  Japanese  life,  next  to  the  criminal  and 
the  outcast  —  the  unskilled  and  homeless  labourers 
in  the  rice  fields.  These  have  been  called  coolies, 
but  their  position  in  Japan  was  quite  different  from 
that  of  the  coolies,  the  half  slaves,  of  the  continent 
of  Asia. 

These  labourers  were  treated  essentially  as  slaves 
in  Hawaii.  They  carried  with  them  none  of  the  cul- 
ture of  Japan,  they  received  none  in  their  new  homes. 
They  did  not  go  as  colonists.  The  Japanese  with 
homes  did  not  willingly  leave  their  homes  where 
"their  own  customs  fit  them  like  a  garment,"  to 
form  new  ones  in  another  region.  The  Japanese  are 
not  spontaneously  colonists.  They  will  go  to  other 
lands  for  study  or  for  trade  or  for  higher  wages. 
But  they  go  with  the  hope  to  return.  The  coolies 
went  to  Hawaii  solely  under  the  incentive  of  higher 
wages.  When  Hawaii  was  annexed  to  the  United 
States  the  shackles  of  their  slavery  was  thrown  off, 
and  the  same  impulse  of  higher  wages  carried  them 
on  to  San  Francisco,  Seattle,  and  Vancouver.  A 
large  per  cent,  of  the  Japanese  farmers  and  of  Cali- 
fornia farm  hands  have  come  over  from  Japan 
through  Hawaii.  In  1899,  Mr.  W.  W.  Scott,  of 
Honolulu,  a  former  resident  of  Japan,  warned  the 
Japanese  authorities  of  the  dangers  involved  in  this 
movement  of  Japanese  labourers  to  California. 


JAPAN  AND  UNITED  STATES        139 

Their  lower  standard  of  living  and  of  wages  would 
make  them  exploitable.  This  would  bring  them  in 
conflict  with  labour  unions.  Economic  clash  would 
beget  race  prejudice,  and  Japan  could  not  afford 
to  be  judged  by  her  least  attractive  and  least  effi- 
cient representatives.  Influenced  by  these  and 
similar  considerations,  the  Japanese  Government,  in 
1899,  refused  passports  to  all  unskilled  labourers,  and 
since  that  time  none  has  come  from  Japan  direct  to 
the  Pacific  States. 

But  in  response  to  the  continuous  demand  of 
Hawaii  they  were  for  a  time  allowed  to  go  there. 
Japanese  people  already  constituted  the  great 
majority  of  the  population  of  these  islands.  Even 
after  passports  were  refused  to  labourers  going  to 
Hawaii,  the  immigration  of  coolies  from  Hawaii  to 
San  Francisco  still  continued. 

There  was  and  is  a  very  great  demand  for  Japanese 
help  among  the  orchardists  of  California.  No  other 
labour  has  been  adequate  and  available,  and  it  is  not 
easy  to  see  what  the  fruit  interests  are  to  do  without 
Japanese  help.  In  this  work  the  European  labourer 
has  scarcely  entered  into  competition.  The  prices 
paid  the  Japanese  are  not  less  than  the  wages  of 
American  labour  in  the  same  lines.  The  demand  for 
Japanese  workers  in  household  service  and  in  canning 
establishments  has  also  been  great  and  unsatisfied. 


i4o  WAR  AND  WASTE 

From  the  fisheries  which  the  Japanese  have  almost 
monopolized  in  British  Columbia  and  in  Hawaii, they 
have  been  virtually  excluded  by  statutes  limiting  the 
fisheries  of  Oregon  and  Washington  to  citizens  of 
these  states.  Unless  born  in  the  United  States  the 
Japanese  cannot  become  citizens  under  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  uncertain  wording  of  our  outworn 
naturalization  laws. 

A  large  portion  of  the  Japanese  labourers  avoided 
the  orchards  and  established  themselves  in[the  cities, 
where,  as  laundrymen,  restaurant  keepers,  draymen, 
carpenters,  and  the  like,  they  entered  thus  into  com- 
petition with  the  American  labourers,  the  most  of 
whom  in  San  Francisco  were  recent  immigrants  from 
Europe. 

Their  lower  scale  of  living  and  their  peculiarities 
in  other  ways  soon  brought  them  under  the  con- 
demnation of  the  trade  unions.  Anti-Japanese 
societies  were  formed  and  much  effort  was  spent  to 
the  end  of  the  exclusion  of  Japanese  and  Korean 
labourers  as  the  Chinese  had  already  been  excluded. 
The  profound  bitterness  and  the  personal  violence 
which  accompanied  the  anti-Chinese  campaign  of 
twenty  years  before  was  practically  absent  from 
this.  The  Japanese  were  better  able  to  take  care 
of  themselves  and,  also,  in  spite  of  much  reckless 
talk  and  exaggeration  of  language,  there  was  very 


JAPAN  AND  UNITED  STATES        141 

little  real  enmity  toward  the  Japanese  with  any 
class  of  their  opponents.  Most  of  the  unfriendly 
talk  has  been  for  political  purposes,  and  the  main 
cause  of  opposition  was  economic,  although  at- 
tempts have  been  made  to  give  it  a  racial  signifi- 
cance. 

An  exclusion  act  like  that  directed  against  the 
Chinese  could  not  be  considered  by  our  Government. 
It  would  be  a  needless  affront  to  a  friendly  nation, 
and  a  nation  willing  to  do  anything  we  may  desire, 
provided  it  could  be  done  with  dignity.  The 
Chinese  exclusion  act  finds  its  excuse  perhaps  in  the 
fact  that  China  is  not  yet  a  nation.  No  absolute 
monarchy  can  be  a  nation,  in  the  modern  sense. 
When  China  finds  herself  at  last,  this  exclusion  act 
must  wholly  change  its  form. 

In  this  condition  of  affairs,  a  definite  agreement 
was  made  in  1907  with  the  Katsura  Ministry  of 
Japan,  that  no  passports  for  America  were  to  be 
issued  to  Japanese  labourers,  that  the  responsibility 
for  discrimination  should  rest  with  Japan,  and  that 
all  holders  of  Japanese  passports  should  be  admitted 
without  question.  This  agreement  has  been  loyally 
and  rigidly  kept  by  Japan.  A  bit  too  rigidly,  per- 
haps, for  it  is  growing  increasingly  difficult  for 
Japanese  students  to  come  to  America.  The 
diffusion  among  our  American  universities  of 


142  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Japanese  students,  eager,  devoted,  and  persistent, 
has  been  one  of  the  most  important  factors  in  main- 
taining the  mutual  good-will  and  good  understand- 
ing of  the  two  nations.  For  everywhere  these 
Japanese  graduates  of  American  universities  give  a 
good  account  of  themselves,  standing  high  in  the 
estimation  of  their  people  at  home,  while  retaining 
keen  interest  and  intelligent  sympathy  in  all  Ameri- 
can affairs. 

The  present  settlement  of  the  immigration  ques- 
tion is  the  very  best  possible,  so  long  as  restriction 
of  any  sort  is  regarded  as  necessary.  It  is  in  the 
interest  of  both  nations  and  of  all  concerned,  and 
the  occasional  efforts  to  supersede  it  by  a  general 
"oriental  exclusion"  bill  are  prompted  by  no  con- 
sideration of  the  public  welfare. 

To  be  grouped  with  the  inchoate  nations  of  Asia  as 
"orientals"  is  particularly  offensive  to  the  proud,  self- 
governing  Japanese.  In  their  thoughts  and  ambi- 
tions, in  their  attitude  toward  peace  and  justice  and 
toward  modern  civilization,  the  Japanese  are  in  full 
harmony  with  the  nations  of  Europe.  As  an  Asiatic 
nation  Japan  stands  alone.  She  has  no  real 
affiliation  with  China  or  Russia,  and  India  is  not  a 
nation.  Her  relations  must  of  necessity  be  closest 
with  the  Caucasian  group  of  nations,  and  especially 
and  for  many  reasons  with  the  United  States.  Com- 


JAPAN  AND  UNITED  STATES        143 

mercially  Japan  is  dependent  on  the  United  States 
as  much  as  Canada  is. 

The  main  justification  of  the  exclusion  of  Japanese 
unskilled  labourers  must  be  found  in  the  economic 
conditions  on  the  two  sides  of  the  Pacific.  It  is  our 
theory  in  America  that  there  should  be  no  permanent 
class  of  unskilled  labourers,  and  that  it  is  the  duty 
as  well  as  the  right  of  every  man  to  make  the  most  of 
himself. 

In  most  other  nations,  a  permanent  lowest  class 
which  must  work  for  the  lowest  wages  and  do  the 
menial  service  of  society  is  taken  for  granted.  This 
theory  is  affirmed  in  the  Chinese  proverb,  "Big  fish 
eat  little  fish,  little  fish  eat  shrimp,  shrimp  eat  mud. " 
It  is  no  part  of  our  policy  that  shrimps  should  remain 
shrimps  forever.  Cheap  labour  is  exploitable  to  the 
ir  jury  of  labour  of  a  higher  grade.  There  is  then  a 
degree  of  justice  in  the  contention  for  the  exclusion 
of  the  cheapest  and  most  exploitable  type  of  labour- 
ers, whatever  their  race  or  the  country  from  which 
they  come. 

There  is  also  legitimate  ground  for  fear  that  a  wide- 
open  door  from  Asia  would  crowd  our  Pacific  coast 
before  the  natural  population  of  America  has  found 
its  way  there.  Such  a  condition  would  add  to  the 
economic  wealth  of  the  coast  at  the  expense  of  social 
and  political  confusion. 


H4  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Many  honest  men  fear  the  advent  of  large  numbers 
of  Japanese  as  likely  to  provoke  racial  troubles 
similar  to  those  which  exist  in  the  South.  I  do  not 
share  this  opinion.  No  race  is  more  readily  at  home 
in  our  civilization  than  the  cultivated  Japanese. 
That  the  rice-field  coolie  does  not  assimilate  at 
once  is  because  of  his  lower  mentality  and  his  lack 
of  training,  either  Japanese  or  American.  This  is 
broadly  true,  though  among  these  people  are  many 
of  fine  instincts  and  marked  capacity.  The  con- 
dition of  mutual  help  and  mutual  tolerance  in  Hawaii 
shows  that  men  of  a  dozen  races  can  get  along  to- 
gether if  they  try  to  do  so.  The  problem  of  the 
South  is  the  problem  of  slavery;  the  problem  of  the 
half-white,  the  man  with  the  diverging  instincts  of 
two  races,  this  status  changed  in  an  instant,  by  force, 
from  the  position  of  a  chattel  to  that  of  a  citizen. 
It  is  the  problem  of  the  half-white  man  given  politi- 
cal equality  when  social  equality  is  as  far  away  as 
ever.  No  bar  sinister  of  this  sort  nor  of  any  other 
kind  separates  the  European  from  the  Japanese. 
It  is  true  that  many  good  men  urge  the  limitation  of 
Japanese  activities  on  the  ground  that  these  will 
prove  the  germ  of  a  race  problem  like  that  of  the 
South,  only  the  more  virulent  because  the  Japanese 
are  industrious,  ambitious,  self-reliant,  and  they  will 
not  suffer  indignities.  But  these  are  the  very  rea- 


JAPAN  AND  UNITED  STATES         145 

sons  why  the  race  problem  of  servility  will  never 
arise  through  their  presence. 

Social  reasons  for  exclusion  have  a  certain  value. 
The  Japanese  are  the  most  lovable  of  people  with  the 
fine  art  of  adjustment  of  personal  relations.  This 
fact  makes  them  the  most  clannish  when  in  an  un- 
sympathetic environment.  They  have  the  faults 
of  their  virtues,  and  the  uneducated  Japanese  some- 
times show  these  faults  in  unpleasant  fashion. 

There  are  still  more  urgent  reasons  why  the  Jap- 
anese themselves  should  insist  on  exclusion  of  their 
unskilled  and  ignorant  labourers  from  Canada  and 
the  United  States.  The  nation  cannot  afford  to 
have  America  know  it  by  its  least  creditable  ex- 
amples. A  hundred  Japanese  rice-field  hands  areseen 
in  America,  to  one  Japanese  gentleman.  Thousands 
of  men  who  never  knew  a  Japanese  merchant  or 
artist  or  scholar  have  come  in  contact  with  Japanese 
draymen  or  laundrymen.  They  have  not  always 
found  these  good  neighbours,  although  not  worse  in 
this  regard  than  many  immigrants  from  Europe. 
The  present  conditions  are  not  permanent,  per- 
haps, but  as  matters  are  to-day  it  is  to  the  interest 
of  Japan,  even  more  than  to  the  interest  of  California, 
that  the  present  agreements  should  be  maintained. 

Just  after  the  Russian  war,  when  America's 
sympathy  was  almost  wholly  on  the  side  of  Japan 


I46  WAR  AND  WASTE 

because  the  attitude  of  Russia  was  believed  to  be 
that  of  wanton  aggression,  a  series  of  anti-Japanese 
articles  were  published  in  various  American  news- 
papers. Who  wrote  these  articles  and  who  paid 
for  them,  I  do  not  know,  but  their  various  half-truths 
and  falsehoods  had  an  unfavourable  effect  on  Ameri- 
can public  opinion.  All  sorts  of  half-forgotten 
slanders  were  revived  and  followed  in  their  wake. 
Among  these  is  the  ancient  falsehood  that  Japanese 
banks  employ  Chinese  tellers  because  they  cannot 
trust  their  own  people.  Of  all  the  2,117  banks  in 
Japan,  only  one,  the  Yokohama  Specie  Bank,  which 
does  a  considerable  business  among  the  local  Chinese 
in  Yokohama,  has  ever  had  a  Chinese  employee.  The 
employment  of  Chinese  for  any  purpose  is  virtually 
unknown  in  Japan. 

The  school  affair  in  San  Francisco  was  unfortunate, 
although  in  itself  of  no  significance  whatever.  In 
the  great  fire  of  1906,  the  Chinatown  of  San  Francisco 
was  entirely  destroyed.  After  the  fire  a  temporary 
schoolhouse  was  established  in  the  neighbourhood. 
There  were  no  Chinese  children  in  this  school  and 
the  teacher,  perhaps  fearing  loss  of  position,  asked 
the  School  Board  to  send  the  Japanese  children  in  the 
neighbouring  region  to  her.  The  School  Board, 
apparently  ignorant  of  possible  international  results 
formed  of  this  an  "Oriental  School."  There  were 


JAPAN  AND  UNITED  STATES        147 

no  Chinese  children  concerned,  nor  is  it  at  all  clear 
that  Japanese  children  would  have  suffered  even  had 
such  been  present. 

Under  our  treaty  with  Japan  our  schools,  as  every 
other  privilege,  were  open  to  Japanese  subjects  on 
the  basis  of  "the  most  favoured  nation."  To  send 
Japanese  children  to  an  "Oriental  School"  was  prob- 
ably a  violation  of  this  clause  of  the  treaty.  It  is  not 
certain  that  this  was  a  violation,  but  it  appears  as 
such  on  the  surface.  So  far  as  I  know,  there  has  been 
no  judicial  decision  involving  this  point.  In  any  case 
the  apparent  remedy  lay  in  an  injunction  suit,  and  in 
a  quiet  determination  of  the  point  at  issue.  It  was 
a  mistake,  I  believe,  to  make  it  a  matter  of  inter- 
national diplomacy.  Neither  the  nation  nor  the 
State  of  California  has  the  slightest  control  over  the 
schools  of  San  Francisco,  unless  an  action  of  the 
School  Board  shall  traverse  a  national  or  state  law 
or  violate  a  treaty.  A  treaty  has  precedence  over 
all  local  statutes.  But  the  meaning  of  a  treaty  can 
be  demonstrated  only  through  judicial  process. 

The  extravagance  of  the  press  in  both  nations 
stirred  up  all  the  latent  partisanship  in  both  races 
involved.  On  the  one  hand  the  injuries  to  the 
Japanese  children  were  grossly  exaggerated.  On  the 
other  hand,  gratuitous  slanders  were  invented  to 
justify  the  action  of  the  School  Board.  Among 


148  WAR  AND  WASTE 

these  was  a  series  of  photographs  in  which  grown 
Japanese  boys  from  the  upper  classes  of  the  Clement 
Grammar  School  were  brought  down  and  seated  with 
little  girls  from  the  primary  classes  and  then  photo- 
graphed. The  action  of  the  Board  was  finally 
rescinded  at  the  request  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  who  uttered  at  the  same  time  a 
sharp  reprimand  to  the  people  of  California.  This 
again  was  resented  by  the  state,  as  only  five  of  its 
citizens  were  responsible  for  the  act  in  question,  and 
the  people  of  the  state  as  a  whole  had  no  part  what- 
ever in  anti-Japanese  agitation  nor  any  sympathy 
with  the  men  temporarily  in  control  of  affairs  in  San 
Francisco.  The  net  result  of  the  whole  affair  was 
to  alienate  sympathy  from  Japan.  This  again  was 
unfair,  for  the  Japanese  nation  as  a  whole  had  no 
responsibility  for  what,  at  the  worst,  was  an  error  of 
judgment  on  the  part  of  a  few  of  its  immigrants. 

Since  this  affair  was  settled  I  have  not  heard  a 
word  as  to  the  relation  of  the  Japanese  to  the  school 
of  San  Francisco,  and  I  presume  that  this  difficulty, 
like  most  others,  has  disappeared  with  time  and 
patience  and  mutual  consideration.  It  is  not  likely 
to  be  heard  from  again. 

Only  a  word  need  be  said  of  other  matters  which 
have  vexed  the  international  air.  War  scares  are 
heard  the  world  over.  The  world  over  they  are  set 


JAPAN  AND  UNITED  STATES        149 

going  by  wicked  men  for  evil  purposes.  In  general 
the  design  of  purveyors  of  international  slanders  is  to 
promote  orders  for  guns,  powder,  and  warships. 
There  are  other  mischief-makers,  who  hope  to  fish 
in  troubled  waters. 

A  few  years  ago  it  was  suggested  in  America  that 
the  Manchurian  railways,  built  on  Chinese  territory 
by  the  governments  of  Russia  and  Japan,  should  be 
sold  to  China.  To  this  end  China  should  borrow 
the  money  of  an  international  syndicate  under 
whose  authority  the  railways  should  be  managed. 
This  line  of  action  was  for  various  reasons  impossible 
to  China.  The  suggestion  itself  was  very  unwel- 
come to  the  Japan  authorities  as  well  as  to  the 
Japanese  people  to  whom  the  leased  land  between 
Port  Arthur  and  Mukden  is  hallowed  ground,  holding 
the  graves  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  of  the 
young  men  of  Japan.  The  suggestion  itself  was 
personal  only.  It  was  never  acted  upon,  never 
approved  by  the  American  people,  no  official  action 
was  ever  based  upon  it,  and  it  should  not  be  a  sub- 
ject of  worry  to  either  Russia  or  Japan. 

The  fur  seal  question  has  been  under  discussion 
for  more  than  twenty  years,  ever  since  the  wanton 
killing  of  females  at  sea  first  threatened  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Bering  Sea  herds.  By  the  pelagic  sealing 
of  Canada  the  number  of  breeding  seals  in  the 


ISO  WAR  AND  WASTE" 

Pribilof  herd  was  reduced  from  about  a  million  to 
about  180,000.  The  entrance  of  Japan  into  Bering 
Sea,  for  the  protection  of  the  herd,  disregarding  the 
regulations  of  the  Paris  tribunal,  inadequate  as 
these  were,  soon  reduced  these  numbers  to  about 
30,000.  Last  year  a  treaty  was  concluded,  Russia, 
Japan,  Canada,  and  the  United  States  being  parties 
to  it,  by  which  the  matter  was  honourably  and 
justly  settled  and  the  continuance  and  restoration  of 
the  three  herds,  American,  Russian,  and  Japanese 
finally  assured.  There  is  not  now  (i9i2*)a  single 
cloud  above  the  official  horizon  as  between  the 
United  States  and  Japan.  There  have  never  been 
any  real  difficulties  and  the  apparent  ones  are  no 
greater  than  must  appear  wherever  great  nations 
border  on  each  other.  As  the  Japanese  are  fond  of 
saying:  The  Pacific  Ocean  unites  our  nations. 
It  does  not  separate. 

War  talk  on  either  side  is  foolish  and  criminal. 
Japan  recognizes  the  United  States  as  her  nearest 
neighbour  among  western  nations,  her  best  customer, 
and  most  steadfast  friend.  Her  own  ambitions  and 
interest  lie  in  the  restoration  of  Korea,  in  the  safe- 
guarding of  her  investments  in  Manchuria,  and  in  the 
part  she  must  play  in  the  unforetold  future  of  China. 

*The  anti-Japanese  land  legislation  arose  after  this  was  written.     It  is  dis- 
cussed elsewhere. 


JAPAN  AND  UNITED  STATES        151 

For  her  own  affairs  she  needs  every  yen  she  can 
raise  by  any  means  for  the  next  half  century.  For 
the  future  greatness  of  Japan  depends  on  the  return 
of  "the  old  peace  with  velvet-sandalled  feet,"  which 
made  her  the  nation  she  is  to-day. 

War  and  war  demands  have  made  her,  for  the 
time  being,  relatively  weak,  she  who  once  was  strong 
in  her  persistent  industry,  her  unchanging  good 
nature,  her  spirit  of  progress,  her  freedom  from  debt, 
and  in  the  high  ambition  of  her  people.  Thirteen 
hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  war  debt  is  a  burden 
not  lightly  carried.  Through  peace,  and  peace  only, 
Japan  will  gain  her  old  strength,  and  none  know 
this  better  than  the  men  of  the  wise  and  patriotic 
group  who  now  control  Japan. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  FEDERATION  OF  EUROPE 

THE  great  nations  of  Europe  are  now  engaged 
in  what  has  been  called  the  race  toward  the 
abyss,  "la  course  vers  1'abime."     Its  end  is 
the  whirlpool  plunge  from  debt  into  insolvency  — 
from  waste  to  ruin. 

The  driving  forces  in  this  race  are  suspicion  and 
greed,  and  the  first  of  these  is  largely  the  deliberate 
work  of  the  latter.  There  are  agencies  which  find 
their  profit  in  the  cultivation  of  international  dis- 
trust, and  their  noxious  influence  has  grown  in 
malignant  parallelism  with  the  growth  of  friendly 
relations. 

In  the  last  forty  years  Europe  has  come  into  a  new 
world,  the  world  of  interlocking  associations.  The 
advance  of  science  and  of  the  arts  of  industry  and 
commerce  which  spring  from  science,  have  given  a 
new  meaning  to  international  relations.  The  inter- 
locking of  interests  of  all  kinds,  incident  to  these  days 
of  rapid  transit  and  safe  residence,  favour  the  welding 
of  closer  and  more  lasting  friendships.  At  the  same 

152 


THE  FEDERATION  OF  EUROPE      153 

time  it  has  brought  the  clash  of  exploiting  interests, 
and  the  resulting  accentuation  of  international  sus- 
picion. Little  Europe  now  controls  great  Africa  and 
greater  Asia,  and  the  trials  and  jealousies  of  far-off 
lands  are  transferred  to  the  populace  at  home. 

And  at  the  same  time,  the  science  which  is  giving 
us  comfort  and  safety  at  home,  with  commerce  and 
intercourse  abroad,  has  mightily  enlarged  the  ma- 
chinery of  force  to  the  disturbance  of  both  safety 
and  comfort.  The  steadily  growing  cost  of  this 
machinery,  and  its  use  as  a  tool  in  financial  enter- 
prise falls  on  the  patient  many,  while  the  gains  of  the 
exploitations  it  serves  everywhere  inure  to  the  few. 

And  all  these  conditions  join  to  form  the  bewilder- 
ing fact,  that  at  this  time,  when  the  nations  of  the 
world  are  linked  in  closer  and  more  friendly  bonds 
than  ever  before,  we  see  the  most  gigantic  expendi- 
ture in  the  machinery  for  international  strife.  Now 
when  the  visible  interest  of  every  nation  is  bound  up 
in  peace  with  every  other,  the  war  lord  holds  the 
whip  hand  and  exacts  a  greater  toll  than  the  people 
of  any  previous  century  ever  paid. 

In  world  government,  the  two  ideals  which  stand 
as  opposites  are  force  and  law.  Peace  is  the  dura- 
tion of  law.  War  is  its  blind  and  brutish  denial. 
The  peace  of  Europe  to-day  is  not  far  removed  from 
the  ideal  of  war.  It  is  merely  frustrate  war.  It  is 


I54  WAR  AND  WASTE 

war,  which,  from  its  cost  and  its  risks,  cannot  be  con- 
summated, though  all  the  means  for  its  consumma- 
tion are  provided  with  disastrous  completeness. 

This  is  not  peace.  It  is  but  an  armed  truce,  and 
one  of  its  worst  features  is  that  it  stands  directly  in 
the  way  of  the  real  peace,  for  which  all  the  people  of 
civilized  Europe  are  actually  prepared. 

For  these  people  have  become  an  economical  unit, 
all  waste  or  loss  or  misfortune  of  the  one  being  felt 
by  all  and  shared  by  all.  The  rising  cost  of  living 
due  primarily  to  the  doubling  of  the  burden  of  taxa- 
tion in  the  last  fifteen  years,  is  felt  by  the  whole  civ- 
ilized world  alike,  and  the  doubling  of  taxation  is  a 
necessary  accompaniment  of  the  race  for  the  abyss. 

In  like  manner,  the  civilized  world  is  becoming  an 
intellectual  unit,  a  moral  unit.  The  cross-waves  in 
human  affairs  are  merging,  for  good  and  for  ill,  into 
the  larger  streams.  Languages,  customs,  morals, 
religions  of  the  feebler  peoples  give  way  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  strong,  and  that  this  influence  should  be 
wholesome  and  hopeful,  the  strong  must  be  at  peace 
among  themselves. 

In  dealing  with  each  other  those  nations  fare  best 
which  are  most  considerate  and  just.  "It  always 
pays  for  a  nation  to  be  a  gentleman."  No  civilized 
nation  has  anything  to  fight  for  with  a  sister  nation. 
It  has  nothing  to  gain  in  war,  and  everything  to  lose. 


THE  FEDERATION  OF  EUROPE      155 

The  belief  that  war  is  inherently  glorious,  that  it 
is  morally  or  physically  in vigou rating,  that  it  has  a 
sanction  in  religion  or  in  righteousness  is  passing 
away.  The  democratic  world  can  see  in  war  only 
a  hideous  calamity,  moral,  physical,  financial,  a 
world-sickness  harmful  to  every  part  of  the  body 
politic  of  civilization,  and  to  be  avoided  as  other 
fevers  are  avoided  by  the  most  rigid  of  personal  and 
political  sanitation.  The  essence  of  the  peace  move- 
ment is  that  war  should  be  the  last  resort,  the  last 
thing  to  be  talked  of  in  case  of  differences  between 
nations. 

And  in  the  degree  that  these  ideas  are  worked  out 
in  practical  national  policy,  we  have  already  an  ap- 
proach to  a  federation  of  the  civilized  world.  The 
postal  union,  the  telegraph  union,  the  international 
interlocking  of  the  banking  systems,  the  interna- 
tional congresses  of  men  and  women  having  all  kinds 
of  common  interests,  all  these  matters  involve  a  de- 
gree of  federation,  a  recognition  of  common  trust 
and  of  common  friendliness. 

In  every  nation  there  is  a  group  which  makes  for 
war,  but  this  war  party  would  be  everywhere  in  pitiful 
minority,  its  hatreds,  its  suspicions,  and  its  ambi- 
tions ridiculous  were  it  not  reinforced  by  the  power- 
ful influences  of  traditional  militarism.  These  have 
in  the  main  three  roots,  the  traditions  of  war  and 


156  WAR  AND  WASTE 

glory,  the  hold  of  the  aristocracy,  and  the  direct  and 
sinister  influences  which  come  from  the  great  war 
syndicates. 

For  centuries,  the  killer  of  men  has  been  the  hero 
of  the  populace,  and  even  religion  has  been  per- 
verted to  be  an  agency  of  that  form  of  patriotism 
which  is  a  cowardly  name  for  international  hatred. 
The  aristocracy  through  the  ages  has  known  no 
profession  save  that  of  arms,  and  military  glory  is 
the  chief  support  of  its  waning  prestige. 

The  movement  toward  peace  and  law  is  but  a 
part  of  the  larger  movement  of  democracy,  the  move- 
ment toward  the  valuation  of  the  individual  man. 
Under  democracy,  the  man  is  no  longer  the  property 
of  the  state,  to  be  coddled  or  manhandled  as  its  offi- 
cials decree.  The  state  exists  for  the  benefit  of  the 
individual  men.  Its  officials  are  the  servants  of  its 
people.  By  cooperation,  men  can  secure  the  chief 
benefits  a  state  can  give,  without  sacrifice  of  their 
own  freedom.  These  are  mainly  justice,  peace, 
education,  and  sanitation.  When  the  state  attempts 
to  secure  more  than  these  for  a  part  of  its  citizens, 
it  must  correspondingly  oppress  the  others.  The 
privilege  of  the  few  is  the  burden  of  the  many. 

Aristocracy  and  militarism  both  find  their  essence 
in  privilege.  For  this  reason,  a  democracy  cannot 
be  military.  For  the  "race  toward  the  abyss" 


THE  FEDERATION  OF  EUROPE      157 

consists  mainly  in  paying  tribute  to  the  dying  spirit 
of  war. 

In  the  old  days,  the  motive  of  war  being  plunder, 
the  robber  barons  of  Europe  sallied  out  from  their 
castles  in  search  of  booty.  The  unfortunate  mem- 
bers of  their  caste  who  fell  into  unfriendly  hands 
were  saved  by  the  payment  of  ransom.  Ransom, 
pillage,  and  booty  were  the  chief  incentives  to  war. 
But  at  last  the  weaker  princes  found  it  cheaper  to 
make  their  payment  in  advance.  This  saved  the 
wear  and  tear  of  murder  and  pillage,  and  cost  less  in 
the  end.  Thus  arose  the  custom  of  tribute,  and  by 
this  system,  peace  within  the  confines  of  the  nation 
was  secured.  The  modern  nations  arose  through 
the  federation  of  princes  and  of  cities  as  against  law- 
lessness and  pillage.  Federation  was  the  only 
remedy  for  baronial  wars.  Federation  has  built  up 
nations,  and  the  essential  character  of  the  nation  is 
that  it  should  be  at  peace  within  itself. 

Early  in  the  history  of  the  American  Colonies 
rose  the  cry  of  "millions  for  defense,  but  not  a  sou 
for  tribute."  This  cry  was  taken  up  by  the  civilized 
world.  The  robber  barons  took  us  at  our  word,  and 
thereafter  their  exactions  were  called  no  longer 
"tribute"  but  "defense."  Each  took  up  his  sta- 
tion within  the  tributary  nation,  and  "Defense  not 
defiance"  became  "the  international  code  signal," 


158  WAR  AND  WASTE 

under  which  they  enforced  their  unceasing  toll,  the 
price  of  armed  peace,  exactions  as  unscrupulous  as 
any  demanded  in  the  middle  ages.  The  weapons  of 
their  exactions  are  still  suspicion  and  fear,  the  war 
scare  and  the  resultant  spasm  of  miscalled  patriot- 
ism. Through  these  agencies,  the  war  syndicates 
have  waxed  rich  and  powerful  within  each  of  the 
leading  nations.  Their  wealth  and  greatness  have 
been  at  the  expense  of  the  long-suffering  people  they 
assume  to  shelter  and  protect.  As  each  group  of  war 
syndicates  succeeded  in  stirring  up  its  own  nation, 
its  rivals  were  able  to  fasten  themselves  still  more 
firmly  on  the  others. 

It  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  nations  of  Europe  are 
taxed  beyond  endurance  in  their  tribute  to  national 
defense.  It  is  also  clear  that  there  exists  no  national 
hatred  and  no  hope  for  plunder  on  the  part  of  any 
nation  of  such  importance  as  to  justify  in  any  degree 
either  its  present  war  scares  or  war  expenditures. 
It  is  clear  that  the  remedy  lies  with  public  opin- 
ion with  the  recognition  by  each  nation  of  common 
reasonableness,  common  friendliness,  and  common 
sense  as  existing  in  other  nations. 

In  so  far  as  this  recognition  is  not  actual,  it  be- 
comes the  basis  of  a  kind  of  federation.  An  "en- 
tente cordiale"  — a  friendly  understanding  is  pos- 
sible between  any  two  law-abiding  nations.  It 


THE  FEDERATION  OF  EUROPE      159 

should  be  established  as  readily  between  England 
and  Germany  as  between  England  and  France.  It 
ought  to  be  possible  on  every  side.  Such  an  under- 
standing involves  all  that  is  essential  in  the  idea  of 
international  federation.  And  such  federation  is 
the  remedy  for  the  ills  of  to-day.  The  destructive 
toll  of  national  defense  would  be  absurd  with  the 
disappearance  of  international  suspicion.  Disunion 
finds  its  natural  remedy  in  federation. 

It  may  not  be  essential  to  insist  on  a  formal  recog- 
nition of  "the  United  States  of  Europe."  There 
seems  no  real  need  of  a  formal  central  government, 
an  official  capital  or  a  ruler  of  any  kind.  The  court 
at  The  Hague  serves  every  essential  purpose,  and 
through  the  p-recedents  it  sets,  it  will  do  its  own  law- 
making.  It  is  not  necessary  or  desirable  to  unify 
the  details  of  European  procedure.  Each  group  of 
people  should  control  itself,  so  long  as  none  infringes 
on  the  peace  or  the  liberties  of  another. 

The  United  States  of  America,  the  most  perfect 
example  of  federation,  contains  within  itself  mem- 
bers of  all  the  nationalities  of  Europe,  as  well  as  of 
Asia.  In  general,  this  multiplicity  of  races  brings 
no  havoc  or  confusion  to  the  nation  which  enfolds 
it.  The  forty-eight  states  from  East  to  West,  from 
North  to  South,  cover  interests  as  wide  and  varied 
as  those  of  all  Europe.  This  fact  is  scarcely  an  in- 


160  WAR  AND  WASTE 

convenience  in  national  administration.  Each  state 
is  sovereign  within  itself.  The  general  government 
is  concerned  mainly  with  those  matters  affecting 
states  as  a  whole  or  in  groups,  and  with  the  rela- 
tions to  other  nations.  Above  all,  it  ensures  that 
between  one  state  and  another  there  shall  be  no  war, 
no  barriers  of  armies,  nor  of  tariffs,  nor  any  institu- 
tion which  has  its  origin  in  suspicion  or  hate.  When 
Europe  is  ready  for  a  general  entente  cordiale,  when 
her  states  are  prepared  to  cast  aside  distrust,  and 
the  tributes  this  exacts,  when  each  section  will  do 
its  part  for  the  mutual  good,  we  shall  have  a  revival 
of  industry,  of  courage  and  enlightenment,  with  no 
parallel  since  the  revival  of  learning.  Those  only 
gain  from  the  present  condition  who  are  the  common 
enemies  of  all,  the  promoters  of  distrust  and  of 
hatred  in  the  interest  of  war  and  of  the  sale  of  war's 
accessories. 

And  the  essence  of  the  whole  matter  lies  in 
our  definition  of  peace.  There  are  many  different 
ideals  covered  by  the  same  noble  word,  and  some- 
times these  stand  in  sharp  contradiction.  We  con- 
trast the  Peace  of  Force  with  the  Peace  of  Law,  the 
Peace  which  is  temporary  —  upheld  by  the  strong 
arm  or  the  balance  of  power  —  with  the  "Old 
Peace  with  velvet-sandalled  feet,"  eternal,  so  long 
as  it  rests  on  the  balance  of  justice. 


THE  FEDERATION  OF  EUROPE       161 

It  may  be  well  to  work  for  the  Peace  of  Force, 
when  nothing  better  seems  possible.  It  may  be 
wise  to  spend  the  earnings  of  toiling  millions  to  se- 
cure it.  It  may  be  better  than  no  peace  at  all.  It 
saves  men's  lives  while  robbing  them  of  prosperity 
and  of  freedom.  But  at  the  best  it  is  only  a  tem- 
porary truce  threatened  by  each  fluctuation  of  the 
"higher  politics." 

The  Peace  of  Force  demands  that  each  and  all 
shall  be  fully  armed.  Before  it  is  the  vision  of 
universal  discord,  held  in  check  by  fear. 

The  Peace  of  Law  looks  forward  to  universal 
order.  In  the  long  run  it  has  no  need  of  force,  for 
with  advancing  civilization  rises  the  power  of  self- 
control,  in  peace  and  friendliness,  the  final  glory  of 
men  and  of  nations. 


CHAPTER  X 

WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY? 
i 

PEACE   AND   THE    BALKANS 

WHAT  shall  we  say,  as  lovers  of  peace,  in  face 
of  the  Balkan  war?     Is  it  true  that  while 
Serbs  are  Serbs,  and  Greeks  are  Greeks, 
and  Turks  are  Turks,  there  is  no  way  out  save  war? 
Is  it  not  true  that  while  Turks  rule  aliens  for  the 
money  to  be  extorted,  there  can  be  no  peace  between 
them  and  their  subjects  or  their  neighbours? 

It  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  answer  these  questions. 
They  belong  to  history  rather  than  to  morals.  The 
progress  of  events  will  take  our  answer  from  our  lips. 
The  problem  comes  to  us  too  late  for  any  act  of  ours 
to  be  effective.  The  stage  was  set,  the  actors 
chosen,  thirty-five  years  ago,  at  Berlin  in  1878. 
Our  part  is  to  strive  for  peace  —  first,  to  do  away 
with  causes  for  war;  second,  to  lead  people  to  look 
for  war  as  the  last  and  not  the  first  remedy  for  national 
wrongs  or  national  disagreements.  Most  wars  have 
their  origin  in  the  evil  passions  of  men,  and  no  war 

162 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  163 

could  take  place  if  both  sides  were  sincerely  desirous 
of  honourable  peace. 

No  doubt,  the  Balkan  situation  could  have  been 
controlled  for  peace  by  the  "concert  of  Powers"  in 
Europe,  were  it  not  that  no  such  concert  exists.  The 
instruments  are  out  of  tune  and  time.  So  long  as  for- 
eign offices  are  alike  controlled  by  the  interests  of  great 
exploiting  and  competing  corporations,  they  can  never 
stand  for  good  morals  and  good  order.  If  they  could, 
theTurkish  rule  of  violence  would  have'ceased'long'ago. 

Those  who  fight  against  war  cannot  expect  to  do 
away  with  it  in  a  year  or  a  century,  especially  when 
it  is  urged  on  by  five  hundred  years  of  crime  and 
discord.  The  roots  of  the  Balkan  struggle  lie  back 
in  the  middle  ages,  and  along  medieval  lines  the 
fight  is  likely  to  be  conducted.  "The  right  to  rule, 
without  the  duty  to  protect,"  is  the  bane  of  all 
Oriental  imperialism.  Meanwhile  our  own  task  is 
to  help  to  modernize  the  life  of  the  world;  to  raise? 
through  democracy,  the  estimate  of  the  value  of 
men's  lives;  to  continue  through  our  day  the  endur- 
ing revolt  of  civilization  against  "obsolete  forms  of 
servitude,  tyranny,  and  waste." 

The  immediate  purpose  of  the  peace  movement 
is,  through  public  opinion  and  through  international 
law,  to  exalt  order  above  violence  and  to  take  war 
out  of  the  foreground  of  the  "international  mind" 


164  WAR  AND  WASTE 

in  the  event  of  disputes  between  races  and  nations. 
No  movement  forward  can  succeed  all  at  once.  Evil 
habit  and  false  education  have  left  the  idea  of  war 
and  glory  too  deeply  ingrained.  Men,  law-abiding 
and  patient,  willing  to  hear  both  sides,  have  never 
yet  been  in  the  majority.  Yet  their  influence  stead- 
ily grows  in  weight.  The  influence  of  science  and 
arts,  of  international  fellowship,  of  common  business 
interests  —  small  business  as  well  as  great  —  are 
leading  the  people  of  the  world  to  better  and  better 
understanding.  Left  alone,  civilized  peoples  would 
never  make  war.  They  have  no  outside  grievances 
they  wish  to  submit  to  the  arbitrament  of  wholesale 
murder.  To  make  them  prepare  for  war  they  must 
be  scared,  not  led.  No  soldier,  we  are  told  by  experts, 
not  even  the  fiercest  Cossack,  wants  to  fight,  after 
he  has  once  tried  it.  Those  who  make  war  never  go 
to  the  front.  Were  it  not  for  the  exaggeration  by 
interested  parties  of  trade  jealousies  and  diplomatic 
intrigues,  few  peoples  would  ever  think  of  going  to 
war.  The  workingmen  of  Europe  suffer  from  tax- 
exhaustion.  The  fear  of  war  is  kept  before  them  to 
divert  them  from  their  own  sad  plight.  This  diver- 
sion leaves  their  plight  still  the  sadder. 

The  bread-riot,  in  all  its  phases,  is  the  sign  of 
over-taxation,  of  governmental  disregard  of  the  lives 
and  earnings  of  the  common  man.  Anarchism  is  the 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  165 

expression  the  idle  and  reckless  give  to  the  feelings 
of  those  who  are  still  law  abiding. 

The  peace  movement  must  stand  against  oppres- 
sion and  waste.  It  must  do  its  part  in  removing 
grievances,  national  and  international.  It  must 
give  its  council  in  favour  of  peace  and  order,  and  it 
must  help  to  educate  men  to  believe  that  the  nation 
which  guarantees  to  its  young  men  personal  justice 
and  personal  opportunity  has  a  greater  glory  than 
that  which  sends  forth  its  youth  to  slaughter. 

ii 

SHALL  THE   TURK   GO? 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Turk 
from  Europe?  Most  of  us  say  let  him  go,  and 
he  seems  to  be  going.  But  we  would  not  have  him 
driven  out  because  he  is  a  Turk  nor  because  he  is  a 
Moslem.  Those  are  not  good  reasons.  Difference 
in  race  or  in  religion  is  no  valid  cause  for  war.  Nor 
is  it  really  the  habit  of  massacre  to  which  the  Turk 
seems  addicted  and  by  which  he  has  stained  the  soil 
of  Armenia  and  Syria  as  well  as  that  of  Macedonia, 
Bulgaria,  and  Greece.  The  Turk  has  a  long  list 
of  massacres  because  he  has  had  a  long  lease  of 
opportunity.  The  fault  is  not  with  the  Turk  but 
with  the  system.  He  has  held  alien  lands  in  military 


166  WAR  AND  WASTE 

servitude  for  500  years.  Others  have  done  as  he 
does  when  the  opportunity  or  the  necessity  was 
forced  upon  them.  Military  pacification  and  military 
control  over  people  who  do  not  manage  their  own 
affairs  spells  always  massacre.  Massacre  is  war,  the 
very  worst  side  of  war.  It  is  war  unrelieved  by  any 
lofty  purpose.  But  more  blood  has  been  shed  in  the 
Balkans  in  a  month  than  the  Turks  have  shed  in  a 
century  before.  Yet  there  is  a  difference.  There  is 
real  force  in  the  Macedonian  proverb,  "Better  an 
end  with  horror,  than  horror  without  end. "  There  is 
a  Mexican  proverb,  "The  grass  grows  over  the  graves 
of  those  who  fall  in  battle,  but  not  over  those  slain 
by  military  order."  The  evil  does  not  lie  with  the 
Turk  as  Turk.  Turks  are  much  like  other  people. 
Like  other  good  soldiers,  those  who  have  tried  it 
have  no  love  for  war.  They  would  rather  not  kill 
nor  be  killed.  But  military  occupation  is  irksome. 
A  soldier  insults  a  woman.  This  has  been  a  soldier's 
privilege  in  most  countries  through  the  insolent 
ages.  An  insult  is  resented.  An  alien  insults  a 
soldier.  A  trader  refuses  to  pay  his  taxes.  A 
civilian  complains  of  ill  treatment.  A  boy  shoots 
a  soldier  from  behind  a  cactus  hedge.  The  soldier 
seeks  revenge.  His  comrades  stand  behind  him. 
Whatever  the  provocation,  "shooting  up  the  town" 
is  no  novelty  in  history.  Insolence  begets  resistance. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  167 

Resistance  to  the  soldier  is  "treachery."  The  pen- 
alty of  treachery  is  "massacre."  This  story  has 
been  told  over  and  over  again  wherever  there  is 
military  pacification  and  military  occupation.  It  has 
been  told  in  our  day  in  Armenia  and  Adana  and  Mace- 
donia. It  has  been  told  in  the  Oasis  of  Tripoli,  in  the 
Transvaal,  in  Samar,  in  Peking,  in  Bessarabia,  in 
Korea,  in  Finland,  in  Zululand,  in  the  Soudan,  in  the 
Congo,  in  Yucatan,  in  India,  in  Indo-China,  in 
Arabia,  in  Egypt.  It  is  not  the  soldier's  duty  to 
stand  patiently  under  abuse.  It  is  not  his  part  to 
respect  the  rights  of  men.  It  is  not  the  civilian's  part 
to  take  in  meekness  the  soldier's  insults.  And  it 
is  not  the  expulsion  of  the  Turk  that  we  hope  for. 
The  Turk  is  the  least  of  our  problems.  We  would  put 
an  end  to  the  whole  system  which  involves  "the  right 
to  rule  without  the  duty  to  protect."  And  in  the 
long  run,  there  is  no  protection  for  any  people  who 
have  not  some  voice  in  their  own  affairs.  Sooner  or 
later  comes  the  end  to  all  imperial  domination  that 
strikes  no  deeper  roots  than  force  of  fear. 

in 

WHY  THE   TURK   FAILS 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  failure  of  Turkey  in  the 
test  of  war?     We  are  told  by  a  leading  military  ex- 


i68  WAR  AND  WASTE 

pert  that  "Turkey  is  being  defeated  because  of  her 
lack  of  preparation  for  war."  Others  have  said 
that  is  was  because  her  armies  have  been  under 
German  drill  and  armed  with  German  guns,  her 
adversaries  being  equipped  in  France.  Others  say 
that  her  armies  contain  too  many  Christians,  who 
will  not  shoot  nor  fight  their  friends.  Others,  with 
a  similar  thought,  say  that  she  "has  misgoverned 
Macedonia  and  Albania,  and  these  in  the  crisis 
become  inevitably  and  properly  her  enemies  and  not 
her  friends,  a  source  of  weakness  and  doom  instead 
of  defense  and  strength. " 

May  it  not  be  that  Turkey's  failure  in  war  is 
because  of  too  much  preparation,  because  she  has  pre- 
pared for  nothing  else? 

Nothing  else  grows  under  military  occupation. 
Turkey's  old  war  debt  of  $509,000,000  is  crushing  to 
all  her  industries,  prohibitive  to  all  her  hopes.  As 
"the  Sick  Man  of  Europe"  Turkey  has  been  kept 
alive  only  by  the  persistence  of  his  creditors.  "In- 
stead of  being  extinguished  in  the  struggle  for  politi- 
cal existence  because  too  weak  to  pay  his  debts,  he 
had  to  be  kept  artificially  alive  in  order  to  pay  them." 

The  reputation  of  the  Turk  as  a  fighter  comes  down 
from  the  days  when  he  was  a  wild  frontiersman. 
For  centuries  he  has  been  kept  in  garrison-towns,  the 
worst  possible  school  for  physical  vigour,  giving  a 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  169 

lassitude  which  even  the  drill  of  a  German  Reid 
marshal  could  not  overcome.  Perhaps  this  is  not 
the  true  explanation,  but  it  is  as  likely  as  the  others. 
The  Turkish  army,  it  appears,  was  short  of  arms  and 
powder  and  rations.  But  the  soldiers  may  have  had 
all  there  was.  Too  long  prepared  for  war,  the 
provisions  for  it  had  long  since  given  out,  and  there 
was  no  money  to  get  any  more. 

Chesterton  tells  us  of  approaching  a  distant  shore, 
covered  with  dark  forest.  As  he  came  nearer  he 
saw  that  this  forest  had  no  roots  in  the  ground.  It 
was  made  up  wholly  of  hovering  vultures.  It  was 
Turkey. 

Professor  Sumner  of  Yale  once  said:  "There  is 
no  state  of  readiness  for  war.  The  notion  calls  for 
never-ending  sacrifice.  It  would  absorb  all  the 
resources  and  activity  of  the  state.  This  the  great 
European  states  are  now  proving  by  experiment. 
Make  up  your  mind  soberly  what  you  want, 
peace  or  war,  then  get  ready.  What  we  prepare  for 
is  what  we  get. " 

For  hundreds  of  years  Turkey  has  been  preparing 
for  war.  She  has  always  had  on  "  the  fighting  edge. " 
The  "fighting  edge"  grows  rusty.  The  standing 
army  grows  stale.  But  successful  war  depends  on 
other  resources.  Other  resources  Turkey  has  not 
got  —  can  never  get,  because  war  is  her  business. 


170  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Her  people  have  not  taken  root  —  not  in  Europe, 
not  in  Asia.     They  live  in  barracks,  in  encampments, 


not  in  a  "continuing  city." 


IV 

THE    FATE    OF   ARMENIA 

What  shall  we  say  of  Armenia  in  this  crisis  of  the 
Balkans?  Is  Turkey  in  Asia  to  be  left  to  its  fate 
with  the  redemption  of  Turkey  in  Europe  ?  Is  the 
military  Turk  a  different  man  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Dardanelles? 

There  is  no  difference.  Only  this:  the  shrieks  of 
victims  grow  fainter  as  the  square  of  the  distance 
increases.  The  military  Turk  is  at  home  nowhere; 
and  his  rule  is  just  as  intolerable  in  Armenia,  in 
Syria,  in  Adana,  in  Arabia  even,  as  it  is  in  Macedonia 
and  Crete.  It  is  not  the  Turk  as  Turk  who  is 
primarily  at  fault.  The  Turk  as  trader,  farmer, 
artisan,  is  likely  to  be  a  good  man,  a  good  citizen, 
according  to  his  lights.  The  fault  lies  with  the 
system.  Irresponsible  military  occupation  is  the 
same  the  world  over.  That  of  the  Turk  has  been 
longer  continued  than  most  others.  It  is  so  much 
the  worse  for  that.  Anything  else  is  to  be  preferred, 
even  the  control  of  Russia.  "There  are  degrees, 
even  in  hell,"  so  an  Armenian  patriot  writes  me. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  171 

And  the  people  of  Armenia  look  hopefully  forward 
to  a  Russian  invasion  as  a  relief  from  the  evils  they 
suffer  now.  The  process  justly  known  as  "the 
strangling  of  Persia"  is  to  Armenia  a  prayed-for 
relief.  The  strangling  of  a  nationality,  though  brutal 
to  the  utmost,  pinches  less  than  the  outrage  of  one's 
family  and  kindred. 

But  no  rule  of  force  unrelieved  can  be  enduring. 
The  right  to  govern  must  accept  the  duty  of  coop- 
erative protection.  The  "wide-flung  battle  lines" 
of  the  world  can  hold  nothing  worth  keeping  if  there 
grow  up  no  other  ties  as  bonds  of  empire.  The  best 
army  in  the  world  becomes  an  instrument  of  tyranny 
if  it  cannot  touch  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Kipling's 
"thin  red  line  of  heroes"  and  Thackeray's  "red-coat 
bully  in  his  boots"  differ  mainly  in  the  point  of  view. 

There  is  no  end  to  the  Balkan  crisis  which  does  not 
include  Armenia.  The  troubles  cannot  pass  until 
tyranny  passes.  The  minor  questions  of  politics, 
Servia's  needs,  Austria's  ambitions,  Roumania's 
deals,  are  of  no  consequence  in  comparison.  The 
exploiters  behind  the  foreign  offices  may  quarrel 
over  the  spoils.  They  can  arrange  the  map  as  they 
please.  The  essential  thing  is  the  redemption  of 
the  peoples. 

What  the  Armenian  wants  is  to  be  allowed  to  live 
as  people  live  in  other  countries,  "immunity  from 


172  WAR  AND  WASTE 

slaughter,  plunder,  torture,  and  outrage  on  the  soil 
of  his  own  fatherland. " 

I  give  below  a  condensation  of  twelve  demands 
from  an  Armenian  appeal  to  the  world  (the  work  of 
Diana  Agabeg  Apcar,  an  Armenian  lady  resident  in 
Yokohama) : 

(1)  The  Armenians  should  be  allowed  the  right  to  bear  arms 
and  to  establish  a  local  militia  in  all  the  Armenian  villages  for 
self-protection  against  the  raids  of  Kurd,  Circassian,  Turk,  and 
other  Moslem  robbers  who  are  allowed  the  possession  of  arms  and 
ammunition. 

(2)  The  Armenians  should  be  allowed  the  right  to  bear  arms 
and  to  establish  Armenian  volunteer  corps  or  local  militia  for 
protection  against  Moslem  destruction  of  their  homes,  churches, 
schools,  shops,  and  industries. 

(3)  The  Armenians  should  be  allowed  the  right  to  bear  arms 
in  order  to  defend  their  own  bodies  and  the  bodies  of  their  women 
and  children  from  Moslem  murder  and  outrage. 

(4)  The  lands  of  the  Armenians,  filched  from  them  by  the 
Turkish  authorities  and  made  over  to  Moslems,  should  be  re- 
stored. 

(5)  A  judicial  committee  of  twelve  members,  composed  of  six 
Armenians  elected  by  the  Armenian  National  Assembly  and  six 
Moslems  deputed  by  the  Government,  should  be  appointed  for 
the  examination  of  title  deeds  of  lands  and  for  the  restoration  to 
the  rightful  owners  of  their  lands.     In  the  event  of  disagreement 
over  the  disputed  properties  between  the  Armenian  and  Moslem 
members  of  the  judicial  committee,  the  case  should  not  be  re- 
ferred to  any  Turkish  court,  but  submitted  to  the  arbitration  of 
two  foreign  Consuls,  the  Armenians  choosing  one  for  themselves 
and  the  Moslems  another. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  173 

(6)  That  Moslem  officials  should  not  be  employed  to  collect 
taxes  in  Armenian  villages,  but  the  taxes  in  all  the  Armenian 
villages  should  be  collected  by  Armenian  tax-gatherers  appointed 
by  the  Armenian  National  Assembly. 

(7)  That  the  Armenians  should  be  allowed  to  establish  their 
own  courts  of  justice  for  the  purpose  of  administering  justice  and 
conducting  litigation  between  Armenian  and  Armenian,  and  for 
deciding  all  questions  relating  to  marriage,   divorce,  estate, 
inheritance,  etc.,  appertaining  to  themselves. 

(8)  That  the  Armenians  should  be  allowed  the  right  to  estab- 
lish their  own  prisons  for  the  incarceration  of  offending  Armen- 
ians, and  in  no  case  should  an  Armenian  be  imprisoned  in  a 
Turkish  prison. 

(9)  That  irrespective  of  the  office  of  the  Turkish  Governor,  an 
Armenian  Governor  elected  by  the  Armenian  National  Assembly 
should  be  appointed  in  every  province  of  Lesser  and  Greater 
Armenia  for  the  protection  of  the  Armenians. 

(10)  That  the  Armenian  Governor  should  be  assisted  by  an 
Armenian  legislative  council  composed  of  six  Armenians  elected 
by  the  Armenian  National  Assembly. 

(n)  That  the  Armenians  should  be  allowed  the  right  of  send- 
ing their  own  delegate  to  the  Hague  Conferences. 

(12)  That  no  reforms  in  Armenia  should  be  left  to  the  promises, 
the  control,  or  administration  of  the  Turkish  Government.  (All 
Turkish  reforms  are  the  prelude  to  Turkish  massacre.) 


THE    GREAT   WAR   OF    EUROPE 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  Great  War  of  Europe, 
ever  threatening,  ever  impending,  and  which  never 
comes  ?  We  shall  say  that  it  will  never  come.  Hu- 
manly speaking,  it  is  impossible. 


174  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Not  in  the  physical  sense,  of  course,  for  with  weak, 
reckless,  and  godless  men  nothing  evil  is  impossible. 
It  may  be,  of  course,  that  some  half-crazed  arch- 
duke or  some  harassed  minister  of  state  shall  half- 
knowing  give  the  signal  for  Europe's  conflagration. 
In  fact,  the  agreed  signal  has  been  given  more  than 
once  within  the  last  few  months.  The  tinder  is  well 
dried  and  laid  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  worst 
of  this  catastrophe.  All  Europe  cherishes  is  ready 
for  the  burning.  Yet  Europe  recoils  and  will  recoil, 
even  in  the  dread  stress  of  spoil-division  of  the  Bal- 
kan war. 

Behind  the  sturdy  forms  of  the  Bulgarian  farmers 
lurks  the  sinister  figure  of  Russian  intrigue.  Russia 
and  Austria,  careless  of  their  neighbours,  careless  of 
obligations,  find  in  this  their  opportunity.  And  the 
nations  of  Europe  in  their  degree  are  bound  to  one  or 
the  other  of  these  malcontents.  Neither  Russia  nor 
Austria  can  be  trusted  to  keep  the  peace  even  in  her 
own  interest,  for  both,  through  debt  abroad  and  dis- 
content at  home,  are  in  a  condition  of  perpetual 
crisis. 

The  financial  exploiters  of  Europe  which  control 
the  "Great  Powers"  are  very  active  behind  the 
scenes.  The  huge  debt  of  Turkey  is  mainly  held 
in  France.  French  financiers  arm  the  Balkan  troops 
and  pay  their  expenses.  French  concessionaires 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  175 

strive  with  English,  German,  Austrian,  for  every- 
thing worth  holding  in  Turkey.  The  "  Sick  Man  of 
Europe"  owes  his  continued  existence  as  well  as  his 
final  demise  to  these  industrious  parasites. 

But  accident  aside,  the  Triple  Entente  lined  up 
against  the  Triple  Alliance,  we  shall  expect  no  war. 
Some  glimpses  of  the  reasons  why  appear  daily  in 
the  press.  We  read  that  German  and  that  Austrian 
banks  try  in  vain  to  secure  short  loans  in  New  York, 
even  at  8  per  cent.  We  learn  that  great  bankers 
refuse  absolutely  to  lend  on  any  terms  for  war. 
We  learn  that  on  the  day  of  Montenegro's  declaration 
of  war,  the  nominal  value  of  stocks  and  bonds  in 
Europe  fell  to  the  extent  of  nearly  $7,000,000,000. 
The  loss  of  France  alone,  the  creditor  of  Europe, 
is  given  at  $800,000,000.  The  decline  in  England  in 
three  years  is  set  down  at  $9,250,000. 

At  the  same  time  the  house  of  Krupp,  the  greatest 
builder  of  war  tools,  reports  a  surplus  for  the  year 
of  $  1 2,500,000.  A  1 2  per  cent,  dividend  was  declared, 
besides  the  setting  apart  of  $4,000,000  for  welfare 
work  and  capital  reserves.  The  armament  builders 
of  France  can  doubtless  show  a  like  profit,  but  the 
details  are  not  yet  public. 

The  gains  of  war  and  war  talk  go  to  the  vultures. 
The  cost  falls  on  the  people.  Whatever  else  happens, 
the  common  man  stands  to  lose  in  war. 


176  WAR  AND  WASTE 

The  expenses  of  the  proposed  general  war  are  thus 
tabulated  by  Prof.  Charles  Richet  of  the  University 
of  Paris: 

Austria 2,600,000  men 

England 1,500,000 

France 3,400,000 

Germany     ........  3,600,000 

Italy 2,800,000 

Roumania 300,000 

Russia         7,000,000 

21,200,000  men 

If  these  nations  —  supposed  to  be  diplomatically 
concerned  in  the  question  of  whether  the  obscure 
Albanian  port  of  Durazzo  should  fall  to  Servia  or  to 
Austria,  neither  of  the  two  having  the  slightest  claim 
to  it  —  should  rush  into  the  fight,  the  expense  would 
run  at  $50,000,000  per  day,  a  sum  to  be  greatly 
increased  with  the  sure  rise  of  prices. 

The  table  of  Richet  (here  translated  from  francs 
to  dollars)  deserves  most  careful  attention : 

Daily  Cost  of  a  great  European  war. 

1.  Feed  of  men $12,600,000 

2.  Feed  of  horses 1,000,000 

3.  Pay  (European  rates) 4,250,000 

4.  Pay  of  workmen  in  arsenals  and  ports  (100 

per  day) 1,000,000 

5.  Transportation  (60  miles  10  days).      .      .  2,100,000 

6.  Transportation  of  provisions       ....  4,200,000 

7.  Munitions:  Infantry   10  cartridges  a  day  4,200,000 

8.  Artillery:   10  shots  per  day 1,200,000 

9.  Marine:  2  shots  per  day 400,000 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  177 

10.  Equipment 4,200,000 

11.  Ambulances:  500,000  wounded  or  ill  ($1  per 

day) 500,000 

12.  Armature 500,000 

13.  Reduction  of  imports 5,000,000 

14.  Help  to  the  poor  (20  cents  per  day  to  I  in 

10) 6,800,000 

15.  Destruction  of  towns,  etc 2,000,000 

Total  per  day $49,950,000 

To  all  this  we  may  add  the  horrors  of  the  air,  the 
cost  of  aeroplanes  and  of  burning  cities  which  this 
monstrous  abomination  of  murder  may  render  in- 
humanly possible.  The  nation  which  uses  instru- 
ments like  these  against  a  sister  nation  can  boast 
no  advance  over  the  red  Indian  and  his  scalping 
knife. 

In  this  connection  we  must  remember  that  Europe 
still  owes  $27,000,000,000  for  old  war  debts,  that  in 
all  her  banks  and  vaults  there  exists  but  seven  or 
eight  billion  dollars  of  actual  coin  or  bullion,  a  third 
of  this  locked  up  or  tied  up  in  vaults  from  which 
it  cannot  escape.  The  total  of  coin  money  and 
bullion  in  circulation  in  the  whole  world  is  not  far 
from  $i  1,000,000,000. 

The  growth  of  credit  in  the  last  forty  years  has 
been  without  conceivable  precedent.  The  movable 
credit  of  Europe  in  1871  did  not  exceed  $40,000,000,- 
ooo. 

The  masters  of  credit  are  staggered  at  the  hazards 


i;8  WAR  AND  WASTE 

of  present  day  war.  Wars  of  a  certain  class  may  be 
tolerated,  others  may  be  connived  at  in  the  interest 
of  local  exploitation,  but  the  great  wars  ending  per- 
haps —  whoever  is  victorious  —  in  the  total  de- 
struction of  European  credit,  present  appalling  risks 
unknown  to  any  earlier  generation.  The  people  are 
slowly  reaching  the  conclusion  that  no  nation  nor 
group  of  nations  has  the  right  to  place  the  world  in 
such  danger. 

The  bankers  will  not  find  the  money  for  such  a 
fight,  the  industries  of  Europe  will  not  maintain  it, 
the  statesmen  cannot.  So  whatever  the  bluster  or 
apparent  provocation,  it  comes  to  the  same  thing  at 
the  end.  There  will  be  no  general  war  until  the 
masters  direct  the  fighters  to  fight.  The  masters 
have  much  to  gain,  but  vastly  more  to  lose,  and  their 
signal  will  not  be  given. 

It  is  not  alone  the  paralysis  of  debt  which  checks 
the  rush  of  armies.  The  common  man  is  having  a 
word  to  say.  While  the  waning  aristocracies  are 
everywhere  for  war,  and  while  the  man  with  nothing 
to  lose  —  the  man  of  the  galleries  in  the  music  hall  — 
repeats  the  echo,  the  good  citizen  sees  the  world  in  a 
new  light.  He  is  not  so  ready  for  a  fool's  errand  to 
Durazzo  as  he  was  a  couple  of  generations  ago  for  a 
similar  mission  to  Sebastopol.  The  cause  of  peace 
has  moved  forward  in  these  years,  and  in  the  only 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  179 

way  in  which  real  progress  in  civilization  can  be 
made  —  through  the  enlightenment  of  the  people. 

VI 

TWENTY-FIVE   THOUSAND   AT   PANAMA 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  demand  for  25,000 
soldiers  at  Panama? 

We  are  told  that  25,000  men  are  needed  to  guard 
the  great  canal  from  "the  enemy." 

Uncle  Sam,  as  we  know,  is  still  a  very  young  man. 
He  hasn't  yet  got  his  business  head.  But  he  has 
Yankee  blood  in  him  and  he  is  beginning  to  figure. 

A  new  $400,000,000  canal  ought  to  yield  $16,000,- 
ooo  a  year  in  net  returns.  Uncle  Sam  doesn't  expect 
this,  for  he  is  an  idealist  and  would  help  on  the  com- 
merce of  the  world.  Besides,  he  has  already  given 
a  sixth  of  his  receipts  to  build  up  his  cherished 
"Coastwise  Shipping  Trust."  But  he  figures  that 
25,000  soldiers  at  Panama  may  cost  $25,000,000  a 
year.  Forts  and  fleets  and  fighting  mosquitoes  may 
cost  him  how  much  he  does  not  dare  to  guess.  Al^ 
this  amounts  to  the  interest  on  $1,000,000,000  and 
more. 

One  of  Uncle  Sam's  most  faithful  teachers  and 
most  loyal  friends  has  figured  most  of  this  out  for 
him.  Prof.  Emory  R.  Johnson,  canal  commissioner, 


i8o  WAR  AND  WASTE 

estimates  the  total  cost  of  the  canal  at  $375,000,000. 
All  this,  interest  and  principal,  must  be  paid  from 
taxes  or  from  canal  tolls. 

For  the  first  two  or  three  years,  the  most  that  can 
be  expected  in  returns  is  about  $12,600,000  per  year, 
if  all  vessels  pay.  If  coastwise  shipping  is  exempted, 
this  will  fall  to  less  than  $10,500,000.  In  ten  years  it 
is  hoped  that  the  toll  receipts  will  rise  to  $17,000,000 
yearly.  The  coastwise  exemption  will  reduce  this 
to  less  than  $15,000,000,  unless  that  useless  grant  of 
special  privilege  to  "the  most  heavily  protected  in- 
terest in  the  country"  should  be  repealed. 

"It  is  estimated  that  $19,250,000  will  be  required 
annually  to  make  the  canal  commercially  self-sus- 
taining. This  total  is  made  up  of  $3,500,000  for 
operating  and  maintenance  expenses;  $500,000  for 
sanitation  and  zone  government;  $250,000  the  an- 
nuity payable  to  Panama  under  the  treaty  of  1903; 
$11,250,000  to  pay  3  per  cent,  on  the  $375,000,000 
invested  in  the  canal;  and  $3,750,000  for  an  amortiza- 
tion fund  of  i  per  cent,  per  annum  upon  the  cost  of 
the  canal." 

When  Uncle  Sam  sees  the  plans  for  fortifications, 
for  ships  for  long  range  and  short  range  defense,  the 
bill  for  soldiers  and  officers,  and  the  cost  of  creating 
a  military  instead  of  a  commercial  atmosphere,  he 
will  finally  conclude  that  it  is  cheaper  and  may  be 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  181 

better  to  let  "the  enemy"  seize  the  canal,  furnishing 
all  the  fortresses,  fleets,  and  soldiers  for  its  protection} 
while  he  puts  his  own  money  into  better  ventures. 

But  Uncle  Sam  cannot  escape  so  easily,  because 
there  is  no  "enemy."  No  nation  on  earth  would 
take  the  Panama  Canal  as  a  gift,  if  the  gift  involved 
defense  by  land  and  sea,  or  if  it  involved  the  loss  of  the 
friendship  (that  is,  the  commerce)  of  the  United  States. 

VII 
THE    CANAL   AND    ITS    ENEMIES 

What  answer  shall  we  give  to  the  demand  for  a 
greater  navy  because  the  Panama  Canal  weakens 
our  line  of  defense? 

The  men  who  make  this  demand  tell  us  that  the 
Panama  Canal,  once  built  and  provided  with  costly 
fortifications,  so  far  from  strengthening  our  position 
in  the  militant  world  (at  the  best,  precarious),  adds 
still  further  to  our  weakness.  Of  our  whole  coast 
"it  is  through  its  isolation  the  most  exposed.  It 
is  intrinsically  the  weak  link  of  the  chain."  "The 
fortifications  and  associated  troops  are  to  ensure  this 
hold  on  the  canal  while  the  navy  may  be  absent  on 
its  mission  of  action  in  either  ocean,  but  neither 
works  nor  troops  will  secure  ultimate  security  if  the 
navy  be  inferior  to  the  enemy's." 


182  WAR  AND  WASTE 

These  people  do  not  state  who  the  enemy  is 
whose  imaginary  attacks  we  are  spending  so  much 
good  money  to  repel.  They  dream  of  war,  but  only 
of  war  against  "the  enemy."  We  may  infer,  how- 
ever, that  it  is  Japan  who  is  on  the  watch  for  this,  our 
weakest  spot.  They  tell  us  that  "the  population  of 
our  Pacific  States  is  less  than  twenty  to  the  square 
mile,  while  that  of  Japan  is  over  three  hundred." 
They  further  clinch  their  purpose  with  reference  to  an 
utterance  some  years  old  of  that  fine  old  Japanese 
gentleman,  Count  Itagaki,  who  has  spent  his  last 
years  trying  to  remove  the  element  of  heredity  from 
titles  of  nobility,  and,  thus  far  without  success,  to 
get  rid  of  his  own  title  of  Count.  Only  the  em- 
peror can  cancel  an  honour  of  this  sort.  Count 
Itagaki  believes  that  the  people  of  the  world  are 
entitled  to  access  to  any  part  of  it,  and  that  the  doors 
of  America  should  not  be  closed  to  Japanese  who  may 
wish  to  take  their  part  in  the  building  of  the  West. 
Perhaps  he  is  right.  It  is  a  question  of  social  philos- 
ophy, and  this  noble-spirited  old  man  has  a  broad 
outlook.  But  this  is  far,  very  far,  from  advocating 
an  armed  attack  by  Japanese  ships  and  soldiers  on 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  It  is  infinitely  far  from 
ensuring  feats  of  arms,  or  deeds  of  violence.  Some 
excellent  men  in  the  United  States  have  thought  that 
Canada  should  have  accepted  our  views  of  reciproc- 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  183 

ity.  To  say  this  is  very  far  from  committing  armies 
to  invade  Canada,  putting  reciprocity  through  by 
force  of  arms. 

The  purposes  of  Japan  are  very  simple.  She 
wishes  to  hold  her  own  at  home,  to  build  up  her 
industries,  and  to  pay  her  debts;  and  meanwhile  to 
make  good  her  ventures  in  Korea  and  Manchuria. 
She  has  passed  through  the  terrible  calamities  of  the 
war  of  Russia,  and  her  tremendous  burden  of  debt 
cannot  be  lifted  for  half  a  century.  She  would  not 
fight  us  if  she  could.  She  could  not  if  she  would  — 
and  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  to  fight  about. 
It  would  be  easier  for  us  to  seize  any  Japanese  port 
than  for  her  to  seize  Panama.  There  will  be  no 
seizing  done  on  either  side. 

When  information  as  to  Japan's  history,  purposes, 
and  resources  is  so  readily  accessible  it  is  not  easy 
to  be  patient  with  those  belated  war  experts  who  talk 
of  Japanese  invasions,  whether  in  America,  Australia, 
or  New  Zealand. 

VIII 
"OUR   SHIPS"   AND    OUR   MONEY 

What  shall  we  say  as  to  "free  ships"  and  the 
Panama  Canal?  If  our  Nation  has  agreed  to  treat 
all  ships  alike,  including  our  own,  let  us  stand  by 


i84  WAR  AND  WASTE 

that  agreement.  Of  violation  of  treaties  we  have 
been  more  than  once  accused  and  justly  so.*  If  we 
know  what  we  have  promised,  let  us  stand  by  it, 
even  though  it  seems  strange  that  we  cannot  "throw 
our  money  to  the  birds  "  while  every  other  nation  is 
free  to  vote  subsidies  whenever  they  please. 

But  why  "throw  our  money  to  the  birds?"  Do 
"the  birds"  require  it  or  appreciate  it?  Why 
should  we  grant  a  further  subsidy  to  the  more  highly 
and  variously  "protected"  of  all  our  industries? 
What  claim  have  coastwise  steamships  of  the  United 
States  to  use  our  canal  at  the  expense  of  the  Ameri- 
can people?  But  these  are  "our  ships"  we  say. 
Since  when  have  they  become  "our  ships?"  Have 
the  New  York  and  London  capitalists  who  own  them 
ever  turned  them  over  to  us  ?  Have  they  ever  agreed 
to  divide  their  profits  with  those  who  make  great 
profits  possible?  The  great  enemy  of  democracy  is 
privilege.  To  grant  a  concession  of  any  sort  having 
money  value  without  a  corresponding  return  is 
"privilege."  The  granting  of  privilege  in  the  past 
is  the  source  of  most  of  the  great  body  of  political 
evils  from  which  the  civilized  world  suffers  to-day. 

'"Treaties,  in  fact,  only  bind  the  polity  of  the  United  States  as  long  as  they 
are  convenient.  They  are  not,  really,  worth  the  labour  their  negotiation 
entails  or  the  paper  they  are  written  on.  It  is  as  well  that  this  position 
should  be  realized,  as  it  may  save  a  "  great  deal  of  fuss  and  disappointment 
ia  the  future." — Sir  Harry  Johnston,  "Common  Sense  in  Foreign  Policy,"  p.  89. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  185 

While  declaiming  against  privilege,  even  while 
exalting  its  curtailment  as  the  greatest  of  national 
issues  to-day,  we  start  new  privileges  without  hesita- 
tion. We  throw  into  the  hands  of  an  unknown  group 
of  men,  to  become  sooner  or  later  a  shipping  trust, 
a  vast  unknown  and  increasing  sum  of  money  ex- 
torted by  indirect  taxation  from  the  people  of  this 
country.  No  accounting  is  asked  from  them;  no 
returns  for  our  generosity.  We  give  them  yearly, 
to  begin  with,  as  much  as  an  American  labourer 
can  earn  in  4,000  years;  in  other  words,  we  place  at 
their  service  and  at  our  expense  4,000  of  our  working- 
men.  From  our  tax-roll  we  pass  over  to  them  the 
payments  each  year  of  10,000  families.  And  all 
because  these  are  our  ships.  "Our  ships" — we 
have  here  the  primal  fallacy  of  privilege,  a  fallacy 
dominant  the  world  over,  and  which  is  the  leading 
agent  in  the  impending  insolvency  of  this  spendthrift 
world. 

In  Europe  and  America  taxes  have  doubled  in  the 
last  fifteen  years,  and  half  of  this  extra  tax  has  gone 
to  build  up  "our  ships,"  "our  banks,"  "our  com- 
merce," "our  manufactures,"  "our  promoters," 
"our  defense"  in  nation  after  nation  while  the  man 
lowest  down  who  bears  the  brunt  of  these  burdens 
has  no  share  in  the  benefits. 

The  ships  that  bear  "our  flag"  in  order  to  go 


i86  WAR  AND  WASTE 

through  our  canal  at  our  expense  are  not  our  ships. 
By  their  demand  of  free  tolls,  we  know  them  for  the 
ships  of  our  enemy  —  for  the  arch-enemy  of  de- 
mocracy is  privilege. 

IX 
THE  OPEN  DOOR  AT  PANAMA 

What  shall  we  say -to  the  suggestion  that  tolls  be 
free  on  the  Panama  Canal  for  a  certain  period  of 
years  to  the  ships  of  all  the  world? 

Why  not?  The  cost  would  not  be  burdensome. 
We  have  already  given  away  a  large  part  of  our  ex- 
pected receipts.  We  have  done  this  in  spite  of  our 
treaty  agreement  that  we  should  do  nothing  of  the 
kind. 

In  giving  free  passage  to  our  coastwise  ships,  why 
not  make  it  free  to  all  the  world?  It  would  be  a 
most  gracious  act,  an  act  most  characteristic  of  a 
great  nation  which  values  generous  action  above 
money.  It  would  show  that  our  occupation  of  the 
Canal  Zone  had  in  part  at  least  the  altruistic  desire 
to  help  the  commerce  of  the  world.  It  would  tend 
to  justify  this  occupation.  It  would  "save  our  face," 
and  save  us  from  facing  the  Hague  Tribunal  to 
answer  for  the  violation  of  a  treaty.  It  would  save  us 
from  our  folly  of  a  special  and  needless  subsidy  to 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  187 

vessels  engaged  in  our  coastwise  trade.  It  would 
make  easy  and  natural  the  neutralization  of  the 
Canal  Zone.  It  would  relieve  us  from  the  worry 
of  the  ruthless  militants  who  would  make  the  Canal 
Zone  invulnerable  on  land  and  unapproachable  by 
sea.  It  would  save  us  the  monstrous  cost  of  the 
fortifications  they  have  already  coaxed  us  or  scared 
us  to  begin.  It  would  cost  us  something,  to  be 
sure,  this  world-embracing  generosity.  Let  it  be  so 
-  we  can  afford  it.  We  have  already  paid  more 
money  for  less  worthy  purposes.  It  would  restore 
our  self-respect  and  the  respect  of  other  nations. 
We  are  losing  both  under  the  statutes  as  they  stand. 
Why  not  declare  the  open-  door  at  Panama  and 
keep  it  open  at  our  own  expense  for  half  a  dozen  years  ? 
Experience  may  bring  wisdom;  we  can  act  better 
later.  Besides,  in  the  fine  words  of  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
"It  always  pays  for  a  nation  to  be  a  gentleman!" 

x 

WHAT    SHIP    GOES    FIRST? 

What  shall  we  say  as  to  the  first  ship  to  pass 
through  the  Panama  Canal?  Let  it  be  an  American 
ship,  bound  on  foreign  commerce.  If  possible,  let 
it  be  a  merchant  ship  on  its  peaceful  way  to  one  of 
our  sister  republics. 


i88  WAR  AND  WASTE 

The  date  of  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  is 
approaching.  A  certain  symbolism  of  the  thoughts 
and  purposes  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  will 
be  associated  with  the  character  of  the  first  vessel 
which  shall  pass  through  the  Panama  Canal.  May 
this  symbolism  be  one  of  international  peace  and 
good-will,  and  of  that  alone. 

The  main  function  of  the  Panama  Canal  is  one  of 
peace.  It  is  to  link  nations  more  closely  by  bonds 
of  travel  and  of  commerce.  To  symbolize  this 
purpose  should  be  chosen  a  vessel  engaged  in  the 
activities  of  peace,  one  sailing  under  the  flag  of  the 
Republic,  bound  to  or  from  the  shores  of  this  nation; 
one  which  shall  bear  the  friendliness  of  the  United 
States  of  America  to  the  nations  of  the  world,  wher- 
ever its  course  may  tend. 

These  purposes  of  the  United  States  could  not  be 
fitly  symbolized  by  a  ship  of  war,  however  great  her 
excellence  and  however  perfect  her  equipment.  The 
existence  of  war  vessels  may  be  a  necessity  in  an  age 
in  which  international  war  is  still  legalized  through 
the  absence  of  intelligent  means  of  settling  interna- 
tional differences.  But  the  people  of  the  Republic 
need  not  glorify  this  necessity.  They  should  hope 
that  war  may  be  made  the  last,  and  not  the  first, 
resort  when  international  problems  arise.  At  the 
best  the  warship  harks  backward  to  the  history  of  the 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  189 

past;  while  the  ship  of  travel  and  commerce  points 
forward  to  our  nation's  ideals  of  the  future. 

This  great  democracy  will  find  its  future  greatness 
not  in  conquest,  not  even  in  self-defense  against 
would-be  conquerors,  but  in  friendly  cooperation, 
the  brotherhood  of  men  and  nations,  the  ennobling 
of  the  individual  man,  and  in  increasing  recognition 
of  the  worth  of  human  life. 

The  historic  trip  of  the  Oregon  was  made  on  an 
errand  we  trust  may  never  be  repeated. 

XI 
THE   MONROE    DOCTRINE 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  as  an 
incitement  to  war?  In  an  address  before  the  Har- 
vard Union  a  leading  general  is  reported  as  saying: 

"We  are  the  only  nation  which  stands  for  definite 
policies  which  are  almost  certain  to  bring  us  into 
conflict  with  other  nations  which  are  expanding. 
The  Monroe  Doctrine  and  our  policy  of  not  allowing 
even  commercial  coaling  stations  of  other  powers  in 
American  waters  are  practically  sure  to  cramp  for- 
eign nations  at  some  time."  It  is  further  assumed 
that  this  will  force  these  nations  into  war  with  us, 
hence  the  need  of  450,000  more  men  who  may  be 
mobilized  as  soldiers  in  case  of  need. 


190 

The  Monroe  Doctrine  has  never  been  made  part 
of  the  policy  of  the  United  States  except  by  the  tacit 
acceptance  of  the  dictum  of  Monroe.  President 
Monroe  declared  "that  the  United  States  will  regard 
as  unfriendly  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  European 
powers  to  extend  their  operations  in  the  Western 
Hemisphere,  or  any  interference  to  oppress  or  in  any 
manner  control  the  destiny  of  governments  in  this 
hemisphere  whose  independence  has  been  acknowl- 
edged by  the  United  States. " 

This  is  a  reasonable  proposition  enough,  provided 
that  we  do  not  push  it  to  offensive  conclusions. 
South  America  has  been  saved  from  the  fate  of 
Africa,  though  it  has  had  its  own  troubles  of  an- 
archy and  waste.  In  so  far  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
has  served  its  useful  purpose.  No  European  nation 
intends  to  violate  it.  None  could  afford  to  do  so 
even  if  it  had  not  to  reckon  with  the  United  States. 
Individuals  in  Europe  may  scoff  at  it,  as  we  some- 
times speak  disrespectfully  of  the  "Spiked  Helmet," 
but  talk  like  this  may  not  be  taken  seriously. 

It  is  only  where  our  claims  go  beyond  Monroe, 
when  we  seem  to  patronize  our  neighbours  or  to  use 
them  for  our  own  benefit,  when  we  assume  special 
rights  in  Latin  America,  "spheres  of  influence"  or 
other  claims  that  suggest  possible  schemes  of 
spoliation,  that  opposition  arises.  And  this  opposi- 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  191 

tion  is  not  from  Europe  but  from  the  South  Ameri- 
can republics.  These  people,  confident  in  their  own 
resources,  naturally  resent  anything  that  looks  like 
an  assumption  of  superiority  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States.  Patronage,  as  such,  is  not  acceptable 
as  a  substitute  for  friendship.  Insistence  on  an  ex- 
treme interpretation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  has 
developed  the  very  reasonable  Calvo  Doctrine  that 
South  America  is  quite  capable  of  taking  care  of 
herself.  Attempted  forcible  collection  of  bad  debts 
has  given  rise  to  the  Drago  Doctrine  that  no  nation 
should  collect  money  for  its  subjects  by  force  of 
arms. 

The  Monroe  Doctrine  does  not  object  to  the 
docking  privileges  or  other  conveniences  of  friendly 
commerce.  As  it  was  promulgated  before  coaling  sta- 
tions were  ever  dreamed  of,  it  involves  no  objection 
to  friendly  transfers  which  do  not  subject  the  people 
of  a  republic  to  the  rule  of  a  monarch. 

Dr.  Manuel  de  Oliveria  Lima,  a  leading  statesman 
of  Brazil,  has  recently  declared  that  South  America 
is  utterly  opposed  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine  as  it 
stands.  "Not  that  they  do  not  appreciate  the 
protection  of  the  power  of  the  United  States,  but 
that  they  are  resentful  of  the  assumption  by  this 
country  of  the  power  of  a  protectorate. " 

He  suggests  that  this  doctrine  be  made,  not  a 


192  WAR  AND  WASTE 

decree  of  the  United  States  alone,  but  a  principle  of 
pan-America,  the  "communal  opposition  of  the 
nations  of  the  Western  Hemisphere  against  encroach- 
ment, on  the  principles  laid  down  by  President 
Monroe. " 

Why  not?  This  would  blend  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
the  Calvo  Doctrine,  and  the  Drago  Doctrine  into  one 
broad  and  reasonable  principle,  acceptable  to  all 
really  concerned. 

We  should  be  large  enough,  generous  enough, 
broad-minded  enough,  to  forego  our  national  leader- 
ship in  this  matter  for  the  general  good-will  of  the 
continent. 

If  our  Monroe  Doctrine  as  bluntly  or  acridly 
stated  is  a  cause  for  war,  it  will  be  very  easy  to  do  our 
part  in  making  it  a  cause  for  peace.  And  the  way 
to  do  this  has  been  well  indicated  by  the  statesman 
of  Brazil. 

A  recent  effort  to  add  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine  a 
clause  including  occupation  of  American  territory 
by  foreign  syndicates  does  not  affect  this  problem 
in  any  way.  The  recent  Senate  resolution,  itself 
based  on  misinformation,  has  no  validity  whatever. 
The  President  of  the  United  States,  being  better 
acquainted  than  the  Senate  with  the  facts  concerning 
Magdalena  Bay,  did  not  join  in  this  declaration. 
It  is  therefore  null  and  void. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  193 

"The  Senate  cannot  declare  the  policy  of  this 
Government,  at  any  rate,  because  it  cannot  make  it. 
It  is  only  part  of  the  treaty-making  power  and  only 
part  of  the  legislative  power  and  only  part  of  the 
executive  power."  The  President  is  therefore  under 
no  obligation  to  follow  the  dictates  of  such  a  resolu- 
tion, and  no  President  would  do  it  unless  such  action 
was  clearly  required  by  the  public  benefit. 

If,  therefore,  the  Monroe  Doctrine  makes  for  war, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  repeal  it  or  to  modify  it,  but  only 
to  share  it  with  our  sister  republics.  Then  it  will 
again  make  for  international  peace  in  accordance 
with  the  original  purpose  of  President  Monroe. 

XII 
THE    SIZE   OF   THE    NAVY 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  size  of  our  navy?  How 
many  warships  do  we  need?  Can  we  do  without 
any? 

The  answers  to  these  questions  belong  to  experts 
—  experts  in  world-civilization  on  the  one  hand,  in 
ship-building  and  ship-using  on  the  other.  Perhaps 
we  have  no  such  experts  in  this  country.  In  any  event 
they  have  never  come  together,  and  our  people  have 
never  had  a  rational  answer  to  these  questions. 

Let  us  analyze  the  conditions.     For  offense,  we 


194  WAR  AND  WASTE 

need  no  ships.  There  is  no  other  land  we  wish  to 
rule,  no  nation  we  wish  to  injure. 

For  defense,  just  as  little.  There  is  no  power 
which  hopes  to  rule  over  us,  no  enemy  that  dares  or 
cares  to  attack.  The  business  of  America  is  linked 
with  all  other  business.  The  commerce  of  America 
enriches  all  our  customers.  It  is  not  good  for  busi- 
ness, as  Benjamin  Franklin  once  observed,  "to 
knock  our  customers  on  the  head. " 

We  care  not  to  waste  our  money  on  mere  rivalry. 
We  are  in  no  Marathon  race  to  see  who  can  pile  up 
the  largest  fleet  or  who  can  excavate  the  biggest 
deficit.  We  care  not  a  straw,  when  we  are  in  our 
senses,  whether  our  navy  in  speed  or  size  or  weight 
of  iron  stands  first  or  tenth  or  twentieth.  Those 
who  stimulate  this  rivalry  have  never  given  to  us 
the  slightest  reason  why  we  should  feel  it.  We  do 
not  build  ships  to  awe  the  world.  If  we  did  we 
should  fail,  for  the  world  is  too  busy  with  its  own 
affairs  to  be  afraid  of  a  self-respecting  republic,  no 
matter  how  terrible  its  disguise  of  power.  To  call 
a  great  navy  an  instrument  of  peace  is  one  of  the 
giant  jokes  of  the  century.  The  way  to  lasting  peace 
is  not  through  fear  nor  through  bankruptcy.  The 
world  knows  —  and  we  ought  to  know  —  that  we 
lie  outside  the  sordid  and  selfish  game  they  call 
world  politics. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  195 

The  most  worthy  reasons  for  a  navy  in  the  United 
States,  so  far  as  I  can  read,  are  these:  The  need  of 
a  certain  dignity  in  public  occasions  on  the  sea,  and 
the  need  of  a  speedy  way  to  help  our  American 
citizens  who  through  no  fault  of  their  own  may  find 
embarrassment  in  foreign  lands.  The  mission  of 
the  Tennessee  and  the  Montana  to  the  shores  of 
Turkey  is  a  legitimate  duty  of  a  nation,  and  the 
nation  wants  ample  and  adequate  means  to  fulfil 
such  duties. 

But  a  fleet  to  rival  the  swollen  navies  of  the  great 
Powers  is  not  needed  for  this  purpose.  If  $13,000,- 
ooo  per  year  was  a  generous  allowance  for  our  navy 
in  1 88 1,  covering  amply  all  demands,  it  is  not  clear 
why,  in  1911,  with  no  greater  or  different  duties, 
this  cost  need  rise  to  $121,000,000.  A  larger  popula- 
tion, a  few  more  helpless  dependencies,  a  more  costly 
type  of  ship  —  all  these  we  may  allow,  making  a 
twofold  or  threefold  increase  perhaps.  But  no  one 
has  suggested  a  reason  why  the  cost  should  be  ten- 
fold —  and  there  is  no  reason. 

The  navy,  like  the  army,  should  be  just  as  efficient 
as  possible,  and  just  as  small  as  its  actual  need 
permits. 

Surely  we  want  nothing  more.  For  the  cost  and 
upkeep  of  the  four  superdreadnaughts  now  asked  for, 
we  could  build  at  Washington  the  one  great  national 


196  WAR  AND  WASTE 

university  of  the  world:  one  of  which  every  scholar 
or  investigator  the  world  over  must  make  use;  one 
which  could  bring  to  its  halls  almost  every  teacher, 
investigator,  or  inventor  of  the  first  rank  the  world 
over;  one  by  the  side  of  which  Harvard,  Columbia, 
Chicago,  or  Wisconsin,  Oxford,  Cambridge,  Berlin, 
Leipzig,  Paris  as  well,  would  seem  like  fresh-water 
colleges.  And  this  would  not  be  for  twenty  years 
at  most,  the  life  of  a  warship.  It  would  give  to 
America  the  intellectual  leadership  of  the  world, 
perhaps  for  all  time.  There  is  no  university  in  the 
world  which  spends  on  its  teaching  force  a  million  dol- 
lars a  year.  A  million  is  the  interest  on  only  twenty- 
five  millions.  How  much  will  sixty  millions  yield? 

Or  if  the  money  were  used  in  another  way,  such 
a  sum  would  go  far  toward  doubling  the  area  of  the 
South  and  West;  to  restrain  the  flood  waters,  to 
pour  them  out  on  the  arid  lands,  to  gather  the 
power  increment  of  all  falling  waters.  No  one  can 
foresee  the  extent  to  which  these  enterprises  would 
add  to  the  wealth  and  to  the  effective  happiness  of 
our  people.  It  is  worth  our  while  to  consider 
relative  values,  to  spend  generously  where  spending 
counts,  and  to  refrain  from  spending  when  the  only 
motive  is  rivalry  or  inertia,  the  inability  to  break 
loose  from  an  evil  fashion,  a  fashion  set  in  other 
nations  and  in  other  times. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  197 

XIII 
AT  THE  DROP  OF  THE  HAT 

In  the  movement  for  the  "Big  Navy"  we  face 
mainly  two  arguments. 

The  one  is  the  fear  that  we  shall  be  left  in  fourth 
or  fifth  place  in  the  "Race  for  the  Abyss,"  now  on 
among  the  mad  nations  of  Europe.  The  second  is 
that  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is  so  perverted  that  it 
leads  us  straight  toward  war,  while  at  the  same  time, 
and  even  though  we  have  "little  or  nothing  to  fight 
with,  all  of  us  Americans  are  ready  to  fight  at  the 
drop  of  the  hat, "  for  this  same  doctrine. 

If  this  is  true,  it  implies  a  sickly  state  of  public 
opinion.  If  we  are  ready  to  fight  for  wrong  or  folly 
"at  the  drop  of  the  hat"  the  sooner  somebody  takes 
away  our  weapons  the  better.  Our  Navy  League, 
aiming  at  national  welfare,  should  help  us  to  correct 
this  spirit.  The  remedy  is  twofold:  Let  us  sanitate 
our  Monroe  Doctrine,  making  it  worthy  of  an  hon- 
ourable nation.  Then  let  us  teach  our  people  to 
look  to  war  as  the  very  last  resort  of  all  in  inter- 
national differences,  not  to  be  evoked  "at  the  drop 
of  the  hat. "  If  we  give  a  rigid  and  persistent  trial 
of  every  other  agency,  we  will  never  come  near  war. 
If  we  offer  fair  play,  we  are  likely  to  get  it,  for  it  is 


198  WAR  AND  WASTE 

overwhelmingly  to  the  interest  of  every  other  nation 
to  be  on  the  good  side  of  the  United  States. 

Admiral  Winslow  has  well  said:  "No  matter  is 
so  trivial  that  nations  will  not  go  to  war  over  it,  if 
they  want  to  go  to  war.  No  difference  is  so  weighty 
that  it  cannot  be  quietly  settled  if  nations  do  not 
wish  war." 

It  takes  two  to  make  a  quarrel;  and  the  honour 
of  the  Republic  demands  that  she  should  not  be  one 
of  the  two,  if  there  can  be  any  other  way  out  of  it. 

We  have  seen  clearly  that  the  military  leagues  of 
Europe  want  war  and  not  peace.  We  have  seen  the 
insistent  rise  of  danger  with  the  growth  of  armament. 
We  have  seen  how  war  taik  spreads  as  armies  and 
navies  grow.  The  more  money  spent  in  war  prepara- 
tions, the  greater  the  danger  of  war.  Something  of 
this  kind  appears  in  America. 

As  our  navy  increases,  so  rises  the  demand  for 
more  soldiers  and  more  ships.  Our  version  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  our  conception  of  the  "Open 
Door, "  our  talk  about  immigration  grows  more  un- 
reasonable, as  our  military  strength  increases. 

To  the  lay  mind,  the  army  and  navy  leagues  are 
gradually  putting  the  chip  on  Uncle  Sam's  shoulder, 
and  for  this  chip  they  encourage  us  to  be  "ready  to 
fight  at  the  drop  of  the  hat. " 

They  have  not  conjured  up  any  enemy  as  yet. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  199 

Our  war  scares  are  based  on  rumours  of  the  most 
trivial  character,  not  rising  even  to  the  dignity  of 
lies,  and  having  little  currency  save  in  barrack-rooms 
and  in  the  "Armour-Plate  Press." 

The  alarming  feature  of  it  all  is  that  some  of  those 
prominent  in  military  affairs  —  men  to  whom  we 
would  naturally  look  for  guidance  —  make  the  most 
of  these  petty  canards,  exaggerating  their  importance, 
emphasizing  their  irritation,  as  arguments  for  swell- 
ing the  army  or  navy. 

Referring  to  the  perversion  of  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine, Admiral  Kimball,  in  a  late  address  at  Toledo, 
says  frankly: 

"In  its  ninety  years  of  life,  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
has  grown  from  an  expression  to  Europe  of  'Hands 
off  of  Spanish-American  territory'  to  a  clear  intima- 
tion that  European  nations  are  not  to  interfere,  as  we 
may  and  do,  in  the  affairs  of  Latin-American  re- 
publics, and  that  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  our 
interests  are  paramount. 

"Judging  from  the  recent  insistent  demands  for 
armed  protection  to  American  property  abroad  and 
from  the  expression  of  our  public  opinion  upon  those 
demands,  as  voiced  by  the  press  of  our  country,  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  seems  to  have  come  to  mean  this : 

"Foreign-owned  property  located  within  the  limits 


200  WAR  AND  WASTE 

of  the  United  States  is  American  property;  American- 
owned  property  located  within  the  limits  of  Latin- 
American  nations  is  American  property  also,  and 
must  be  given  the  same  protection  as  would  be  due 
it  were  it  located  within  the  limits  of  the  United 
States,  but  must  remain  free  from  any  direction 
whatever  either  by  the  United  States  or  by  the 
unhappy  Latin-American  nation  within  whose 
limits  the  property  may  be  located,  especially  if,  as 
is  so  often  the  case,  the  title  to  such  American 
property  lies  in  a  fraudulent  or  violated  government 


This  touches  a  vital  question  of  national  honour, 
a  matter  vastly  more  important  than  a  big  navy  or  a 
little  navy,  and  one  which  no  war  can  settle. 

What  does  our  Monroe  Doctrine  mean  ?  What  is 
its  honourable  interpretation?  —  our  Republic  can- 
not be  guilty  of  any  other.  We  must  free  it  from  all 
suggestion  of  selfishness,  of  patronage  or  contempt. 
We  are  great  enough  to  be  magnanimous.  We  must 
not  go  forward  with  any  threat  of  exploitation  backed 
with  the  force  of  arms.  We  are  not  a  brigand  nation, 
even  though  some  of  our  acts  have  brought  on  us 
this  accusation. 

The  method  is  plain.  Let  us  join  with  our  great 
sister  republics  in  a  pan-American  agreement  to 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  201 

hold  America  still  free  from  all  extension  of  imperial- 
ism, claiming  no  rights  for  our  citizens  not  granted 
to  all  others,  and  standing  as  a  unit  against  all 
"Spheres  of  Influence,"  all  forcible  collection  of  bad 
debts,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  machinery  of  conquest 
which  the  great  Powers  of  Europe  have  devised. 

Before  we  discuss  naval  extension  let  us,  as 
good  citizens,  try  to  get  at  realities  in  our  inter- 
national relations.  Let  us  have  sanitation  where 
sanitation  is  due.  Let  us  see  that  our  own  higher 
politics  is  sound  and  just,  and  free  from  needless 
irritation.  Then  let  us  agree  not  to  talk  of  fighting 
anybody  till  we  have  tried  all  other  methods  of 
adjustment.  Let  us  see  that  there  is  no  fighting 
"at  the  drop  of  the  hat"  while  we  use  every  rational 
means  of  making  our  geographical  isolation,  our 
prosperity,  our  freedom,  our  absence  of  debt,  and 
the  general  intelligence  of  our  people  count  for  all 
they  are  worth  in  the  measure  of  our  diplomatic 
strength. 

XIV 
THE    UNREADY   NAVY 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  plea  for  more  ships 
while  those  we  have  are  still  not  ready  for  war? 
In  the  recent  session  of  the  Navy  League,  it  was 


202  WAR  AND  WASTE 

declared  that  our  array  of  warships  was  not  still 
ready  for  war,  not  "fit  for  fighting. " 

This  seems  at  first  a  bit  discouraging,  for  these 
same  ships  are  built  for  war  and  are  "fit"  for  nothing 
else.  If  war  is  what  we  expect  of  them  the  outlook 
is  dark  indeed.  Fortunately,  it  is  not:  All  we  ask 
of  our  ships  is  decoration.  To  make  them  "fit  for 
fighting"  would  be  to  change  our  temper,  not  to 
change  our  ships.  And  so  no  more  ships  and  no  more 
money  will  change  the  situation. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  of  vital  interest  to  us  that 
our  navy  should  never  be  ready  for  war.  If  it  were, 
it  would  become  more  dangerous  than  "the  enemy" 
it  is  to  face.  A  navy  which  is  ready  is  fit  to  bring 
trouble  of  itself.  It  is  like  an  enormous  pistol 
always  cocked,  and  so  always  liable  to  explode. 

If  we  had  a  navy  in  which  every  gun  was  loaded, 
every  ship  in  commission,  every  officer  eager  for  the 
fray,  every  sailor  and  marine  on  his  toes  all  the  time, 
we  should  be  ready  for  war,  and  most  likely  we  should 
get  it. 

The  awful  danger  which  persists  in  the  relations 
of  Germany  and  France  does  not  lie  in  any  quarrel 
between  these  peoples,  nor  even  in  the  crushing  load 
of  arms  both  nations  carry.  It  lies  in  the  fact  that 
their  armies  are  ready  for  war.  Real  war  neither 
nation  has  seen  for  a  generation.  Their  valiant 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  203 

soldiers  are  thus  far  heroes  of  the  parade  alone. 
Now  they  cry  for  blood  and  glory. 

All  these  "peace  establishments,"  as  they  call 
themselves  in  the  hideous  humour  of  the  day,  are 
straining  at  the  leash.  It  is  taking  all  the  forces  of 
internationalism  on  both  sides  to  hold  them  back. 
The  forces  of  common  thought,  of  common  interest, 
of  common  business  are  all  opposed  to  war,  and  to 
the  war-lord  the  bottom  of  the  treasure-chest  is 
plainly  visible.  But  he  is  ready,  and  when  one  is 
"fit  for  fighting"  he  is  apt  to  scorn  all  consequences. 

So  while  Germany  and  France  race  toward  the 
abyss,  it  is  well  to  slacken  our  own  speed  a  little. 
We  are  not  ready  for  war.  When  we  are  ready  it 
will  be  time  for  us  to  fix  up  our  fleet. 

And  we  do  not  care  to  do  this  now.  Mob  tactics 
will  not  sweep  us  off  our  feet  again.  We  have  no 
differences  with  foreign  nations;  we  never  have  had 
any  of  any  great  consequence.  We  have  learned 
better  ways  of  adjustment  than  to  go  to  war.  It  is 
simpler,  wiser,  more  honourable  and  more  effective 
to  try  other  methods  first.  If  we  hold  war  as  a  last 
resort,  the  Hague  Court  goes  before  it;  and  the  whole 
cost  of  this  court  to  all  the  nations  which  support  it  is 
less  than  the  cost  of  an  hour  of  a  great  war. 

To  trust  to  arbitration  or  to  trust  to  war  —  the 
contrast  of  these  two  policies  makes  the  difference 


204  WAR  AND  WASTE 

between  barbarism  and  civilization,  between  an- 
archy and  law,  between  absolutism  and  democracy. 

No  foreign  war  is  possible  for  us  now  except  as  a 
culmination  of  an  inconceivable  series  of  criminal 
blunders  for  which  our  history  gives  no  parallel  and 
no  expectation. 

Our  navy  will  not  force  war  on  us,  for  the  navy, 
like  ourselves,  is  not  ready.  If  the  navy  wanted 
war  it  would  be  ready.  It  has  money  enough  to  get 
ready  on.  In  the  last  two  administrations,  generous, 
not  to  say  lavish  in  appropriations,  we  have  spent 
more  than  a  billion  dollars  on  our  navy.  This  is  a 
sum  greater  than  the  monstrous  indemnity  Bismarck 
exacted  in  his  effort  forty  years  ago  to  "bleed  France 
white."  Just  now,  we  are  putting  in  $146,000,000 
a  year.  This  is  $400,000  per  day,  or,  if  you  like, 
$2,777  Per  minute,  the  wages  each  year  of  276,210 
average  American  workmen,  and  about  ten  times  as 
much  as  our  forty-eight  States  spend  yearly  on  their 
State  universities,  their  technical  colleges,  and  indus- 
trial schools  —  the  backbone  of  our  national  progress. 

But  even  this,  as  our  naval  guides  often  tell  us,  is 
cheaper  than  war.  We  could  well  afford  to  pay 
double  for  our  navy  (as  we  doubtless  shall  in  a  dozen 
years  or  so,  for  patriotism  and  log-rolling  go  hand  in 
hand)  if  we  could  be  assured  that  it  would  never  be 
"fit  for  fighting." 


WHAT  SHALL  WE, SAY  205 

The  best  assurance  of  this  would  be  a  deter- 
mined effort  on  the  part  of  the  spokesmen  of  the  navy 
to  forestall  war,  to  help  us  to  broaden  and  humanize 
those  American  policies  which  in  their  judgment  are 
heading  us  straight  toward  war.  We  may  not  share 
their  fear,  but  we  would  be  grateful  for  their  powerful 
help.  Perhaps  from  the  crow's  nest  of  the  dread- 
naught  they  can  see  things  beyond  our  narrow  civil- 
ian horizon. 

Meanwhile  we  are  sure  that  we  have  plenty  of  time 
to  get  ready.  No  nation  wants  to  attack  us.  The 
militarists  of  the  old  world  find  their  own  buga- 
boos nearer  home.  We  have  no  grudge  that  craves 
satisfaction  in  blood.  In  this  age  of  science,  of 
business,  of  travel,  of  law,  of  enlightenment,  there  is 
no  place  for  the  ordeal  of  war  flatly  opposed  to  all 
these  influences. 

It  is  not  for  war  and  not  for  peace  that  our  navy 
exists.  It  really  stands  for  giant  decoration.  For 
this  it  is  always  ready  and  for  this  an  old  historic 
Ironsides  or  a  worn-out  spectacular  Oregon  is  quite 
as  useful  as  the  latest  dreadnaught.  As  Mr.  Bryce 
sagely  observes :  "  It  seems  to  be  thought  nowadays 
that  the  dignity  and  status  of  great  nations  require 
a  big  man  just  as  in  the  sixteenth  century  a  nobleman 
of  high  rank  was  expected  to  travel  about  with  and 
maintain  a  crowd  of  useless  retainers. " 


206  WAR  AND  WASTE 

xv 

MILITARY   CONSCRIPTION 

What  shall  we  say  to  the  efforts  of  military  experts 
in  Great  Britain,  the  United  States,  and  in  the  great 
British  colonies  in  behalf  of  universal  compulsory 
military  service? 

Only  this:  we  will  have  nothing  of  it.  It  is  not 
American.  It  is  not  democratic.  It  is  not  whole- 
some. This  service  has  been  the  curse  of  continental 
Europe.  That  no  man  is  a  soldier  against  his  will  is 
the  badge  of  freedom  in  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States.  "Every  Englishman's  house  is  his 
castle."  Every  Englishman's  body  (except  as 
freedom  is  lost  by  conviction  of  crime  or  of  incom- 
petence) is  secure  from  official  manhandling.  The 
primal  evil  of  compulsory  military  service  is  its 
onslaught  on  personal  freedom.  The  political  evil 
is  that,  its  purpose  being  war,  it  keeps  the  air  filled 
with  talk  of  war.  War  would  vanish  if  people  could 
only  "forget  it."  It  is  in  itself  so  irrational,  so 
costly,  so  brutalizing,  that  we  would  have  none  of  it 
if  we  could  separate  it  from  ideas  of  "patriotism" 
and  of  glory.  The  conscripts  think  of  war  as  the 
ultimate  end  for  which  they  are  "doing  time." 
"The  conscripts  hope  for  war,"  writes  a  Bavarian 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  207 

sharpshooter,  "because  they  look  for  a  chance  to 
get  even  with  their  officers."  The  petty  officers, 
swarming  in  multitudes,  have  no  other  thought  than 
war.  The  higher  officers  (not  all  of  them)  look 
forward  to  actual  war  for  exercise,  for  promotion,  or 
for  the  test  of  their  unverified  theories  or  of  their 
weapons  rusting  through  years  of  peace.  All  these 
men  idle  or  malemployed  pile  up  the  taxes,  giving 
the  workingman  more  and  more  mouths  to  feed. 

We  need  not  deny  a  certain  value  —  physical, 
mental,  or  even  moral  —  to  military  drill.  We  need 
not  deny  that  a  standing  army  may  be  made  in  some 
degree  a  school  for  the  betterment  of  the  individual. 
We  should  not  in  the  least  appreciate  the  work  of 
those  men  who  have  given  their  lives  to  the  upbuild- 
ing of  the  character  of  boys  in  military  institutes. 
To  act  together,  to  act  promptly,  to  obey  orders  — 
all  these  may  constitute  the  best  of  training  for 
young  men.  All  this  has  a  value  wholly  outside  of 
war.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  unwilling  conscrip- 
tion. 

Enforced  military  service  of  grown  men  bears  the 
same  relation  to  military  discipline  of  willing  students 
that  stoking  a  furnace  bears  to  building  one's  own 
campfire  in  a  forest.  The  successful  military  school 
has  sympathetic  teachers,  men  to  whom  the  end  of 
the  work  is  character-building.  It  deals  with  boys 


208  WAR  AND  WASTE 

at  that  age  in  which  order  and  obedience  furnish  the 
best  lessons.  It  is  as  far  away  as  possible  from  the 
atmosphere  of  barracks  and  brothels,  the  chief 
features  of  the  idle  standing  army. 

Military  service  considers  only  the  purpose  of  war. 
Its  discipline  the  world  over  is  under  incompetent, 
narrow-minded,  irresponsible,  often  profane  and 
brutal  teachers.  As  a  school  it  is  at  the  best  most 
costly,  inefficient,  and  belated.  Its  work  is  begun 
too  late  in  life  to  have  educational  value,  even  were 
the  war  authorities  anxious  to  give  the  individual 
soldier  industrial  or  other  training  to  fit  him  for  civil 
life.  Besides  this,  the  standing  army  has  been  for 
centuries  the  reservoir  of  the  "red  plague"  parasites. 
Under  the  most  favourable  conditions  physicians 
have  been  able  to  reduce  the  number  of  victims  of 
venereal  disease  from  about  one  in  three  to  one  in  six. 
In  tropical  service  the  proportion  of  men  ruined  or 
half  ruined  is  far  greater. 

The  "white  slave  traffic"  of  to-day  is  an  outgrowth 
of  the  standing  army.  Requisitions  have  been 
published,  signed  by  commanding  officers,  and 
frankly  drawn  on  associations  of  pimps.  The 
term  "white  slave"  was  first  used  by  Napoleon  III, 
who  applied  it  to  his  conscript  soldiers,  those  whom 
Napoleon  I  called  " chair  pour  le  canon"  —  "meat  for 
the  cannon." 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  209 

In  1867,  the  great  journalist  Emile  Girardin  wrote : 
"If  war  is  to  be  suppressed  in  Europe,  this  must  be 
done  gradually.  The  first  step  is  the  abolition  of 
the  'white  slave  traffic'  —  that  is,  of  military  serfdom, 
the  suppression  of  the  drawing  lots  for  men.  It  is 
here  that  a  beginning  should  be  made." 

Now  that  the  conscriptionists  are  hard  at  work  in 
England,  active  in  the  United  States,  and  successful 
in  New  Zealand,  it  is  time  to  stand  for  individual 
freedom  and  individual  peace.  We  make  no  criti- 
cism of  military  drill  in  schools  or  other  well-guarded 
establishments,  when  it  is  voluntary  and  part  of  a 
well-planned  course.  We  pledge  ourselves  to  a 
permanent  fight  against  the  military  conscription 
which  burdens  Continental  Europe.  We  find  our 
answer  in  the  words  of  Runciman,  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  spoken  at  Elland  in  opposition  to  the 
plans  for  manhandling  in  England:  "Lord  Roberts 
knows  little  of  the  north  of  England  if  he  imagines 
that  it  would  ever  submit  to  conscription.  War  is 
only  inevitable  when  statesmen  cannot  find  a  way 
around  or  through  difficulties  that  may  arise,  or  are 
so  wicked  that  they  prefer  the  hellish  method  of  war 
to  any  other  method  of  solution,  or  are  so  weak  as  to 
allow  soldiers,  armament-makers,  or  scaremongers  to 
direct  their  policy." 

In  any  international  difference,  war  should  stand 


210  WAR  AND  WASTE 

as  the  last  resort  and  not  the  first.  If  force  is  kept  in 
the  background  and  all  other  methods  are  tried  out 
first,  there  will  not  be  many  wars  in  your  day  or  mine. 
The  few  that  we  shall  see  will  have  the  motive  of  rob- 
bery of  the  weak,  or  else  the  motive  of  revolt  against 
age-long  operations  of  "military  pacification." 

XVI 
THE   ABOLITION    OF    PIRACY 

What  shall  we  say  to  the  plea  of  Dr.  Frederick 
Harsley  at  the  University  of  Berlin,  that  all  war 
operations  at  sea  should  be  confined  to  the  three-mile 
limit  of  territorial  jurisdiction? 

Why  not?  This  would  be  a  great  move  forward, 
and  in  the  line  of  the  efforts  of  Sir  John  Brunner  and 
many  other  good  men  to  safeguard  private  property 
at  sea.  Private  property  on  land,  if  not  used  for  war 
purposes,  is  immune  from  hostile  seizure.  It  has 
been  so  since  1899.  But  private  property  at  sea 
may  be  seized  by  the  crews  of  hostile  vessels  and 
taken  as  prizes  for  their  personal  benefit.  This  right 
to  plunder  has  been  supposed  to  stimulate  officers 
and  men  to  patriotic  activity.  By  this  means 
England  once  destroyed  Holland's  commerce;  and 
those  who  forget  that  we  live  in  a  changing  world 
have  wished  to  hold  on  to  the  legalized  piracy,  as  a 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  211 

means,  some  time,  of  doing  the  same  thing  with 
Germany.  This,  it  was  said,  "ensures  not  only 
England's  overlordship  of  the  sea,  but  also  her  su- 
premacy of  trade  for  all  times."  This  is  no  longer 
true,  and  England's  insistence  on  the  right  of  piracy 
is  plunging  the  world  into  insolvency.  It  is  this 
vicious  claim  which  explains,  if  it  does  not  excuse,  the 
huge  naval  armament  of  Germany,  for  "  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  take,  lying  down,  such  a  perpetual  menace." 

But  the  cruelty  and  folly  of  legalized  piracy  has 
become  apparent  to  wise  and  just  men  in  England. 
The  next  Hague  Conference  will  see  a  determined 
effort  to  do  away  with  it,  as  we  have  already  done 
away  with  legalized  pillage  on  land. 

Now  why  not  go  a  step  further  and  make  the  sea 
an  open  highway  on  which  all  sorts  of  vessels  shall 
be  safe  from  all  form  of  attack?  Why  not  make 
belligerent  nations  confine  their  brawls  to  their  own 
shores?  All  the  sea  outside  the  three-mile  limit 
belongs  to  all  the  world.  Let  it  be  made  immune 
from  war.  And  let  it  be  provided,  at  international 
expense,  with  ships  for  the  protection  of  commerce  — 
not  for  its  destruction.  Let  us  have,  as  Doctor  Hars- 
ley  urges,  a  life-saving  patrol  for  warning  and  for  help 
when  the  icebergs  come  down  from  the  north.  Let 
us  join  to  destroy  all  derelicts.  Let  us  find  the 
dangers  of  the  open  sea,  and  jointly  remove  them, 


212  WAR  AND  WASTE 

without  adding  to  them  the  dangers  involved  in  the 
operations  of  ships  of  war. 

The  naturalists  of  the  world,  led  by  Paul  Sarasin 
of  Basle,  have  already  made  a  plea  for  the  prohibi- 
tion of  the  killing  of  the  great  seagoing  mammals, 
fur  seal,  sea  otter,  walrus,  sea-lion,  whale,  outside  of 
the  three-mile  limits  of  the  coasts  where  these 
creatures  breed.  On  no  other  terms  can  these 
splendid  animals  be  preserved  for  future  generations. 
Why  not  do  the  same  by  Man,  the  greatest  of  all 
seafaring  creatures?  Why  not  let  his  path  at  sea  be 
free  from  all  dangers  from  his  f ellowmen  ?  Why  not 
recognize  the  supreme  value  of  the  right  to  trade  and 
travel?  If  men  must  be  killed  on  a  large  scale  in 
international  rivalry,  why  not  take  the  matter  out 
of  the  world  jurisdiction,  and  confine  the  slaughter 
to  the  territorial  waters  of  the  nations  concerned  ? 

The  navies  of  the  world  must  melt  away.  The 
taxpayers  of  the  world  cannot  stand  the  drain  much 
longer.  Why  not  take  away  their  chief  excuse  and 
build  up  the  merchant  fleets  instead  ? 

XVII 
ENTANGLING    ALLIANCES 

What  shall  we  say  of  Washington's  warning  that 
we  of  the  United  States  should  keep  free  from 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  213 

"entangling  alliances?"  Do  we  realize  how  sound 
this  advice  was,  and  that  the  provision  of  our  con- 
stitution which  prevents  secret  treaties  is  one  of  the 
most  valuable  clauses  in  that  noble  document? 

In  it,  we  may  remember,  it  is  provided  that  an 
international  treaty  originating  with  the  executive 
must  be  approved  openly  by  the  Senate  before  it 
can  have  any  value.  No  minister,  no  President, 
can  secretly  pledge  the  nation  to  any  line  of  action. 
No  President,  no  Senate,  no  Congress,  acting  alone, 
can  make  any  declaration  of  national  policy.  For 
these  reasons,  the  United  States  must  stand  outside 
of  the  tangled  snarl  of  concessions  and  intrigues 
which  we  call  "world  politics."  It  must  play  its 
international  games  with  open  hands.  It  cannot  be 
the  secret  friend  of  any  other  nation.  It  cannot 
be  a  secret  enemy,  because  all  acts  of  friendship  or 
of  hostility  are  open  to  all  the  world. 

In  the  present  crisis  in  European  politics  the  peo- 
ple in  no  nation  know  where  the  nation  stands. 
By  the  law  of  "continuity  of  policy"  Sir  Edward 
Grey,  in  London,  is  bound  to  the  international  agree- 
ments made  by  his  predecessor  in  office,  his  oppo- 
nent in  politics.  No  English  citizen  knows  how  far 
he  is  pledged  to  France,  or  to  what  degree  he  is 
to  be  blind  to  the  designs  of  Russia.  He  knows 
that  there  is  a  "triple  entente,"  a  three-cornered 


214  WAR  AND  WASTE 

understanding,  and  that  this  entente  pledges  England 
to  inaction  in  Morocco,  Persia,  or  Mongolia,  and  to 
acute  and  active  protest  should  Germany  attempt  to 
extend  her  control  by  force.  In  like  fashion  Ger- 
many is  bound  to  Austria,  to  Italy,  to  Turkey,  in 
varying  degrees;  and  no  German  knows  when  his 
empire's  responsibility  in  the  renewed  Triple  Alliance 
may  leave  off.  Germany  may  suspect  Austria  of  a 
desire  to  fight,  in  order  to  secure  unity  at  home. 
She  may  disapprove  of  Italian  greed  and  folly.  She 
may  deplore  the  fate  of  Turkey  or  she  may  recog- 
nize it  as  just  or  inevitable.  No  good  citizen  of  Ger- 
many cares  a  straw  whether  Durazzo  is  in  Servian 
or  in  Austrian  hands,  or  in  the  hands  of  its  own  peo- 
ple to  whom  it  really  belongs.  The  very  existence  of 
Durazzo  is  no  concern  of  his.  But  the  secret  treaty 
may  force  him  to  give  up  his  life  somewhere  in  the 
blood-washed  Balkans,  that  Austria  may  block 
Servia's  hoped  for  a  "window  to  the  sea."  He  can 
only  guess  at  the  future.  He  must  await  the  out- 
come of  the  secret  treaty  before  he  can  define  his 
own  patriotism. 

The  secret  treaty  is  a  relic  of  the  military  state. 
The  civilized  world  is  still  organized  on  the  medieval 
theory  that  war  is  a  natural  function  to  be  expected 
in  the  normal  course  of  events,  not  a  hideous  moral, 
physical,  and  financial  catastrophe.  In  the  old  the- 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  215 

ory  as  expounded  by  Machiavelli,  the  king  has  no 
other  business  but  war.  It  is  the  duty  of  his  minis- 
ters to  find  weak  places  in  the  defenses  of  other  kings 
through  which  war  may  be  successful,  and  to  find, 
after  the  fact,  excuses  by  which  war  can  be  justified. 
The  late  Italian  war  was  begun  and  continued  on 
strictly  medieval  lines.  The  secret  treaty,  the  con- 
cession to  a  friendly  power,  the  artificial  interference 
with  a  rival  —  all  these  belong  to  the  days  of  Mach- 
iavelli. If  all  parties  concerned  could  come  out  into 
the  open,  where  the  United  States  is  forced  to  stand, 
we  should  soon  have  an  end  to  the  Anglo-German 
struggle,  to  the  rivalry  between  the  Triple  Entente 
and  the  Triple  Alliance. 

Outworn  ideas  of  national  glory,  outworn  figures 
of  speech  as  to  national  purposes,  outworn  medieval- 
ism in  our  conception  of  the  state  —  all  these  find 
expression  in  the  "secret  treaty,"  the  "entangling 
alliance,"  which  is  a  chief  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the 
conciliation  of  nations. 


What  shall  we  say  of  the  progress  in  the  art  of 
killing  in  these  centuries  of  Christian  civilization  ? 
Benjamin  Franklin,  in  1782,  after  the  battle  of 


2i6  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Martinique,  wrote  thus  of  what  he  elsewhere  called 
the  "Pest  of  Glory" :  "A  young  Angel  of  distinction 
being  sent  down  to  this  wo  rid  on  some  business  for  the 
the  first  time,  had  an  old  courier  spirit  assigned  him 
as  a  guide.  They  arrived  over  the  seas  of  Martinico 
in  the  middle  of  the  long  day  of  obstinate  fight  be- 
tween the  fleets  of  Rodney  and  de  Grasse.  When, 
through  the  crowds  of  smoke,  he  saw  the  fire  of 
the  guns,  the  decks  covered  with  mangled  limbs 
and  bodies  dead  or  dying,  the  ships  sinking, 
burning  or  blown  into  the  air,  and  the  quantity  of 
pain,  misery,  and  destruction  the  crews  yet  alive  were 
thus  with  so  much  eagerness  dealing  around  to  one 
another,  he  turned  eagerly  to  his  guide  and  said: 
'You  blundering  blockhead,  you,  so  ignorant  of 
your  business;  you  undertook  to  conduct  me  to 
Earth,  and  you  have  brought  me  to  Hell.'  'No, 
sir,'  replied  the  guide;  'I  have  made  no  mistake. 
This  is  really  the  Earth,  and  these  are  men.  Devils 
never  treat  each  other  in  this  cruel  manner.  They 
have  more  sense  and  more  of  what  men  call  hu- 
manity.'" 

Gustaf  Janson,  of  Sweden,  in  1912,  one  hundred 
and  thirty  years  later,  after  the  battle  of  the  Tripoli 
Oasis,  wrote  thus  of  what  he  calls  "Lies,"  and  which 
others  have  paraphrased  as  "The  Pride  of  War." 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  217 

"The  bird-man  had  returned  from  his  flight  into 
the  desert  where  the  bombs  he  threw  had  stirred  up 
the  sands  about  the  Arab  encampment. 

"The  general  shook  him  warmly  by  the  hand  once 
more  and  stood  for  a  few  minutes  sunk  in  thought. 
*  Gentlemen,'  he  began  suddenly,  turning  to  the  offi- 
cers, 'it  is  incredible  how  the  technique  of  war  has 
changed.  Telephones,  telegraphs,  wireless  commu- 
nications —  war  makes  use  of  all  these.  It  presses 
every  new  invention  into  its  service.  Really,  most 
impressive.  I  have  just  been  reading  the  latest 
aviation  news  from  Europe.  Our  ally  Germany 
and  our  blood-relation  France  possess  at  this  mo- 
ment the  largest  fleets  of  aeroplanes  in  the  world. 
The  distance  between  Metz  and  Paris  can  be  covered 
in  a  few  hours.  The  three  hundred  aeroplanes 
which  Germany  possesses  at  this  moment,  all  con- 
structed and  bought  in  France,  could  throw  down 
ten  thousand  kilos  of  dynamite  on  the  metropolis 
of  the  world  in  less  than  half  an  hour.  This  is  a 
positively  gigantic  thought!  In  the  middle  of  the 
night  these  three  hundred  flying-machines  cross  the 
border,  and  before  daybreak  Paris  is  a  heap  of  ruins ! 
Magnificent,  gentlemen,  magnificent!  .  .  .  Un- 
expectedly, without  any  previous  warning,  the  rain 
of  dynamite  bursts  over  the  town.  One  explosion 
follows  on  the  other.  Hospitals,  theatres,  schools, 


2i8  WAR  AND  WASTE 

museums,  public  buildings,  private  houses  —  all  are 
demolished.  The  roofs  break  in,  the  floors  sink 
through  to  the  cellars,  crumbling  ruins  block  up  the 
streets.  The  sewers  break  and  send  their  foul 
contents  over  everything  .  .  .  everything. 
The  water  pipes  burst  and  there  are  floods.  The 
gas  pipes  burst,  gas  streams  out  and  explodes  and 
causes  an  outbreak  of  fire.  The  electric  light  goes 
out.  You  hear  sound  of  people  running  together, 
cries  for  help,  shrieking  and  wailing,  the  splashing 
of  water,  the  roaring  of  fire.  And  above  it  all  can  be 
heard  the  detonations  occurring  with  mathematical 
precision.  Walls  fall  in,  whole  buildings  disappear 
in  the  gaping  ground.  Men,  women,  and  children 
rush  about  mad  with  terror  among  the  ruins. 
They  drown  in  filth,  they  are  burnt,  blown  to  pieces 
in  explosions,  annihilated,  exterminated.  Blood 
streams  over  the  ruins  and  filth;  gradually  the  shrieks 
for  help  die  down.  When  the  last  flying-machine  has 
done  its  work  and  turned  northward  again,  the 
bombardment  is  finished.  In  Paris  a  stillness  reigns, 
such  as  has  never  reigned  there  before. 

"  'We  can  imagine,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
French  have  carried  out  this  same  operation  against 
Berlin,  or  possibly  London.  Who  knows  what 
political  combination  the  future  may  have  in  store? 
But  be  that  as  it  may,  it  only  remains  to  us  gratefully 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  219 

to  dedicate  ourselves  to  the  new  and  glorious  task 
now  set  before  us.  Gentlemen,  I  bare  my  head 
before  the  marvellous  and  unceasing  progress  of 
mankind.'  The  general  removed  his  cap,  and  his 
voice  vibrated  with  gratitude  to  the  merciful  Provi- 
dence which  would  perhaps  grant  that  he  would  live 
to  see  this  vision  come  true;  and  he  continued:  'In 
the  face  of  this  triumphant  progress  which  I  have 
just  described  I  am  not  overstepping  the  mark 
when  I  say  that  we  are  approaching  perfection.  " 

In  1912  Israel  Zangwill,  in  "The  War  God,"  writes: 

"  To  safeguard  peace  we  must  prepare  for  war"  — 

/  know  that  maxim;  it  was  forged  in  hell. 

This  wealth  of  ships  and  guns  inflames  the  vulgar 

And  makes  the  very  war  it  guards  against. 

The  God  of  War  is  now  a  man  of  business, 

With  vested  interests. 

So  much  sunk  Capital,  such  countless  callings, 

The  Army,  Navy,  Medicine,  the  Church  — 

To  bless  and  bury  —  Music,  Engineering, 

Red-tape  Departments,  Commissariats, 

Stores,  Transports,  Ammunition,  Coaling-stations, 

Fortifications,  Cannon-foundries,  Shipyards, 

Arsenals,  Ranges,  Drill-halls,  Floating  Docks, 

War-loan  Promoters,  Military  Tailors, 

Camp-followers,  Canteens,  War  Correspondents, 

Horse-breeders,  Armourers,  Torpedo-builders, 

Pipeclay  and  Medal  Venders,  Big  Drum  Makers, 

Gold  Lace  Embroiderers,  Opticians,  Buglers, 

Tent-makers,  Banner-weavers,  Powder-mixers, 


220  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Crutches  and  Cork  Limb  Manufacturers, 
Balloonists,  Mappists,  Heliographers, 
Inventors,  Flying  Men,  and  Diving  Demons, 
Beelzebub  and  all  his  hosts,  who,  whether 
In  Water,  Earth,  or  Air,  among  them  pocket  — 
When  Trade  is  brisk  —  a  million  pounds  a  week! 


In  "Beyond  War,"  1911,  Prof._VernQn_Li_JCelr 
logg,  living  on  the  Bay  of  Carmelo,  in  California, 
writes  a  follows; 

"There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  going  and  coming 
at  my  neighbour's.  Just  now  a  second  physician  has 
driven  up  rapidly  with  a  tank  of  oxygen  in  his  carriage. 
I  know  enough  of  my  neighbour's  affairs  —  as  one 
does  in  a  village  where  we  live  humanly  interested  in 
one  another  —  to  know  that  he  is  dying  this  morning. 
He  is  a  simple,  sweet,  very  tired  old  gentleman  of 
eighty-nine,  and  rather  wishes  to  die.  He  exemplifies 
that  pleasant  condition  that  Metchnikoff  looks  for- 
ward to  as  a  desirable  probability  of  our  evolution 
and  our  triumph  over  untimely  disease  and  death, 
where  we  shall  all  come  to  the  desire  of  death,  not 
through  disappointment  or  morbid  despair,  but 
through  having  fulfilled  life.  And  we  shall  welcome 
the  cessation  of  life  just  as  in  our  great  days  we  wel- 
comed its  continuance. 

"But  my  neighbour's  friends  and  his  two  phy- 
sicians, rich  in  the  present  knowledge  of  science  and 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  221 

medicine,  are  prolonging  the  vegetative  life  of  the 
moribund  old  man  with  oxygen  and  stimulants  that 
rack  his  body  and  defeat  his  great  need.  This  need 
is  simply  that  of  ceasing  to  live  useless,  painful,  and 
mentally  empty,  therefore  superfluous,  hours. 

"Punctuating  these  sounds  from  my  neighbour's 
dooryard  come  some  from  farther  away:  low,  heavy, 
distant,  but  repeated,  insistent  sounds  that  strike 
the  ears  with  muffled  blows,  and  are  perfectly  recog- 
nizable to  me  for  what  they  truly  are,  because  I  have 
investigated  similar  ones  before.  They  are  the 
sounds  of  the  shots  of  the  soldiers  at  the  Monterey 
Presidio  in  the  pines  on  the  hill  slope  over  the  ocean, 
firing  singly  and  by  platoons  at  man-size  and  man- 
form  targets  in  the  forest.  The  hilltop  over  the 
ocean  looks  toward  Japan,  and  the  man-form  metal 
targets,  that  fall  over  dramatically  when  struck 
above  the  middle,  seem  to  me  of  rather  small  man- 
size. 

"The  Monterey  Presidio,  although  of  ancient  his- 
tory as  America  reckons  ancientness  —  for  there  the 
soldiers  and  priests  once  guarded  and  prayed  over 
the  old  Spanish  capital  of  California  —  is  a  modern 
garrison  with  modern  administration.  The  well- 
trained  officers  teach  the  well-cared-for  soldiers  all 
the  hideous  secrets  of  modern  scientific  warfare. 
They  have  them  practise  assiduously  with  smoke- 


222  WAR  AND  WASTE 

less  powder  cartridges  in  wonderful  guns  at"  man- 
form  targets  scattered  realistically  among  the  trees 
and  bushes  of  the  hillside. 

"If  these  targets  were  replaced  by  Japanese  men 
between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  forty,  men  in  the 
very  bud  and  unfaded  blossom  of  life,  especially 
picked  indeed  for  the  fullness  and  purity  of  the  blood 
in  their  bodies,  each  time  one  went  over  because 
struck  above  the  middle,  a  human  being  would  be 
put  by  the  success  of  modern  science  as  applied  to 
war  into  the  condition  of  my  neighbour  who  is  dying. 

"And  yet  oddly  enough  the  modern  science  of  be- 
nevolence is  doing  all  that  it  can  to  prevent  my 
used-up  and  death-desiring  and  death-needing  neigh- 
bour from  dying." 

It  is  said  that,  for  a  century  or  more  after  the 
death  of  Jesus,  no  follower  of  his  was  enrolled  in  any 
army  or  took  part  in  any  battle.  This  may  not  be 
literally  true,  but  it  was  true  in  spirit.  The  cen- 
turion, Maximilian,  we  are  told,  "threw  down  his 
military  belt  at  the  head  of  his  legion,  saying:  'I 
am  a  Christian,  therefore  I  cannot  fight!'"  and  these 
words,  says  Harnack,  became  a  common  formula 
with  men  who  believed  in  a  brotherhood  not  to  be 
achieved  through  killing.  It  was  only  under  Con- 
stantine  (A.  D.  312)  that  the  Cross  was  brought  into 
the  service  of  war. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  223 

XIX 
THE    FORCE    OF   ARMS 

What  shall  we  say  to  the  claim  that  the  stability 
of  a  nation  must  rest  on  compulsion;  that  in  the  last 
analysis  authority  means  force  of  arms  ?  In  America, 
we  have  thought  that  in  the  free  will  of  a  free  people 
there  lay  a  force  of  union  greater  than  the  power  of 
any  army.  We  have  supposed  that  the  real  force 
behind  our  institution  lay  in  public  opinion,  the 
collective  judgment  of  free  men. 

This  is  a  force,  we  know,  with  which  we  all  must 
reckon;  a  force  that  stands  at  the  opposite  pole  from 
the  force  of  arms  —  the  force  of  public  opinion. 
Is  there  not  a  fallacy  somewhere  in  our  use  of  the 
word  "force"?  The  ''force  of  arms"  is  not  a  "force"; 
it  is  a  fear  —  the  fear  of  being  murdered.  It  has  no 
potency  among  the  fearless,  the  resolute,  the  desper- 
ate. It  is  operative  only  when  men  consider  their 
chances,  as  of  sudden  death,  against  their  devotion 
to  the  line  of  action,  right  or  wrong,  against  which 
the  force  of  arms  may  be  directed. 

Once  perhaps  the  force  of  arms  may  have  been 
really  physical  force.  The  power  of  muscle  and  of 
fists  may  have  brought  some  refractory  family  or 
tribe  to  order.  Struggle  is  inherent  whenever  men 


224  WAR  AND  WASTE 

are  brought  together.  Nowhere  do  men  in  the  large 
have  like  interests,  like  purposes,  like  feelings.  But 
struggle  is  not  force  of  arms,  and  the  normal  rivalries 
of  men  do  not  involve  the  necessity  of  killing.  The 
power  to  kill  without  redress  and  the  fear  of  killing 
are  both  involved  in  the  force  of  arms. 

And  as  military  affairs  progress  we  go  further  and 
further  from  the  idea  of  force.  Modern  war  takes 
no  account  of  normal  courage  or  personal  strength. 
Torpedoes  and  lyddite  recognize  no  heroes.  The 
strong  are  led  forth  to  slaughter,  not  as  abler  fighters 
but  as  better  able  to  bear  the  strain  of  camp  or 
march,  as  looking  better  in  a  uniform. 

The  end  of  war  is  exhaustion  on  both  sides.  Not 
exhaustion  of  physical  force,  but  of  loans  and  taxes. 
When  war  decides,  in  the  last  analysis,  it  is  not  force 
but  fear  which  determines  the  solution.  And  fear 
was  never  the  foundation  of  the  stability  of  any 
nation. 

If  China,  for  example,  should  build  up  a  great 
army,  to  promote  internal  stability,  the  effort  would 
be  sure  to  fail.  A  great  army  may  hold  communities 
in  awe,  it  may  fill  the  air  with  war,  it  may  egg  on  the 
spirit  of  glory,  it  may  inflame  ambitions  and  anti- 
pathies. But  no  nation  can  build  its  institutions 
upon  it.  It  is  no  factor  in  a  great  republic;  it  is  no 
bond  of  union  among  self-respecting  men.  To  found 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  225 

a  nation  upon  force  of  arms  is  to  build  on  sand. 
Even  Germany's  unity  is  not  one  of  blood  and  iron. 
It  rests  on  the  widespread  intelligence  of  the  German 
schools,  the  well-planned  training  of  her  industrial- 
ism, the  "wide-flung"  justice  of  her  code  of  laws. 

"Dominion  over  palm  and  pine"  avails  nothing 
unless  dominion  has  its  real  root  in  the  hearts  of  a 
grateful  people.  The"  far-flung  battle-line"  can 
hold  nothing  worth  keeping  unless  there  grow  up  ties 
of  common  thought  and  common  interest  which  in 
time  will  banish  all  need  of  lines  of  battle. 

xx 

THE    FIGHTING    EDGE 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  dangers  we  run  by  losing 
our  "fighting  edge"? 

A  military  expert  is  reported  to  have  declared  at 
the  Harvard  Union:  "When  a  nation  becomes 
large  and  rich  and  inert  it  is  certain  of  annihilation 
by  other  powers."  Shades  of  the  Goths  and  Van- 
dals! When  did  all  this  happen?  When  did  an 
inert  nation  Become  rich?  When  did  a  rich  nation 
ever  become  inert  ?  There  is  only  one  way.  This  was 
the  Roman  way:  To  become  rich  by  plunder;  to 
become  inert  by  the  loss  of  strong  men,  by  the  loss 
of  the  great  widening  wedge  of  those  who  should 


226  WAR  AND  WASTE 

have  been  their  descendants.  This  is  the  way 
of  the  armed  host;  and  in  history,  each  nation 
dependent  on  force  of  arms  has  found  in  it  its  final 
undoing. 

Rome  seized  the  fruits  of  other  people's  industry. 
Her  strong  young  men  were  sent  far  and  wide,  over 
the  accessible  world,  never  to  return.  They  left  no 
offspring  at  home.  Her  leaders  fought  each  other 
back  and  forth  in  Rome,  until,  in  the  words  of  the 
latest  and  best  of  her  historians,  "Only  cowards 
remained,  and  from  their  brood  alone  came  the  new 
generations."  The  Romans  conquered  the  world; 
and  the  Romans  at  home  sprang  from  the  man  who 
was  left  —  from  the  man  whom  war  could  not  use. 
The  city  of  Rome  filled  up  like  an  overflowing  marsh, 
but  her  people  were  not  true  Romans.  They  were 
sons  of  slaves,  scullions,  peddlers,  sutlers,  adven- 
turers, get-rich-quick  men  from  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
To  cultivate  the  Roman  fields,  the  historian  tells  us, 
"whole  tribes  were  taken. "  "Out  of  every  hundred 
thousand  strong  men  eighty  thousand  were  slain;  out 
of  every  hundred  thousand  weaklings,  ninety  to 
ninety-five  thousand  were  left  to  survive." 

Even  at  the  best,  or  the  worst,  Rome  was  not  rich. 
It  was  only  the  few  who  controlled  the  wealth  of  the 
Eternal  City.  It  was  only  the  Caesars  and  the 
favourites  of  Caesers  who  found  place  on  the  Palatine 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  227 

Hill.  For  the  mob  there  was  no  participation. 
Their  part  was  bread  and  circuses. 

No  nation  is  really  rich  unless  it  grows  rich  evenly. 
No  nation  grows  rich  evenly  save  by  industry  and 
trade.  No  nation,  rich  or  poor,  ever  grew  inert 
through  industry.  The  only  exhaustion  history 
has  known  is  war  exhaustion.  This  is  expressed 
in  terms  of  waste  and  debt:  crushing  taxes  on  the  one 
hand,  and  reversed  selection  —  the  survival,  not 
of  the  fittest,  but  of  the  weakest.  This  shows  itself 
in  loss  of  initiative,  in  over-caution  and  undue  pa- 
tience in  facing  the  ills  of  life,  in  corruption,  in  des- 
potism, in  dependence  on  violence  instead  of  reason 
in  meeting  the  national  crisis. 

For  all  force  of  arms  is  a  confession  of  weakness. 
It  is  a  confession  that  the  cause  it  represents  is  not 
founded  in  reason,  in  justice,  not  fixed  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people. 

"You  cannot  organize  a  pirate  crew  until  its 
members  drop  the  use  of  force  one  against  another. " 
The  weapon  of  force  "produces  the  very  evils  it  was 
forged  to  prevent. "  The  force  of  arms  as  a  cement- 
ing influence  is  the  badge  of  political  inefficiency. 
The  mailed  fist  is  the  dependence  of  the  weak  nations, 
not  of  the  strong.  Strong  men  are  "too  self-willed 
and  too  independent  to  allow  any  one  to  rule  over 
them  but  themselves." 


228  WAR  AND  WASTE 

It  was  this  thought  that  led  Martin  Luther 
to  declare  that  no  League  of  Princes  could  help 
on  the  German  Reformation  of  religion.  "God 
is  a  righteous  but  marvellous  judge,"  he  said. 
"Sickingen's  fall  is  a  verdict  of  the  Lord  that  the 
force  of  arms  must  be  kept  far  from  matters  of  the 
Gospel." 

There  is  no  Orozco,  nor  Zapata,  no  Alva  nor  Tilly, 
nor  Wallenstein,  no  Goth  nor  Vandal  nor  Moor  nor 
Hun  who  can  overrun  our  nation  so  long  as  we  thrive 
in  the  arts  of  peace.  To  be  large  and  rich  and 
courteous  and  reasonably  honest  is  to  make  all  other 
nations  our  friends  and  our  debtors. 

It  is  the  business  of  a  sentinel  on  the  watch  towers 
of  the  outer  gate  to  keep  us  alert  to  every  pass- 
ing shade.  It  is  the  business  of  good  citizens 
to  keep  their  heads  and  to  trust  their  neigh- 
bours so  long  as  they  know  these  to  be  good  citizens 
too. 

"The  soldier  is  not  to  be  blamed  for  doing  his^work. 
It  is  the  civilian  who  should  be  blamed  for  not  adding 
the  proper  supplement."  The  citizen  should  size  up 
the  situation.  It  is  his  nation.  He  pays  the  bills. 
He  suffers  frorr\the  waste.  If  you  live  in  a  fireproof 
house,  no  use  to  spend  two  thirds  your  income  on  fire 
insurance.  And  don't  depend  on  the  insurance 
agent  to  set  you  right. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  229 

XXI 
THE    NET   OF   THE   USURER 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  net  of  the  usurer,  which  we 
are  told  stifles  all  activities  of  Europe  in  war  or  peace? 

Men  have  been  made  free  by  war.  Why  not  again? 
Why  not  break  the  net  in  which  we  are  confined? 

Because  it  will  not  break  by  war,  for  in  war  it  was 
woven. 

Mr.  Cecil  Chesterton  (not  the  real  Chesterton,  his 
brother,  whose  name  is  Gilbert)  first  coined  this 
phrase,  the  "Net  of  the  Usurer,"  another  name  for 
the  "Unseen  Empire"  of  finance.  With  a  mixture 
of  metaphors  worthy  of  a  greater  humourist,  he  looks 
to  war  to  tear  this  usurer's  net,  because  a  costly  war 
may  rip  the  usurer's  purse  as  well.  That  the  banker 
may  lose  money  does  not  ease  up  on  the  banker's 
creditors.  For  old  wars,  we  have  pawned  our  free- 
dom; and  war  will  not,  on  further  borrowed  money, 
restore  it. 

Mr.  Chesterton  would  have  France  fight  this  war 
of  release,  and  that  against  Germany  (although  the 
usurer  mostly  lives  in  France),  the  purpose  being 
to  save  Europe  from  the  infection  of  German  ideas, 
especially  "the  idea  that  you  can  make  a  nation 
strong  by  making  its  people  behave  like  cattle. " 


230  WAR  AND  WASTE 

This  idea  may  be  a  bad  one,  but  it  cannot  be  sup- 
pressed by  killing  Germans  or  being  killed  by  them. 
It  is  itself  purely  a  war  idea,  and  more  war  will  not 
cure  it.  Our  nets  were  all  woven  by  war,  not  by 
any  usurer. 

More  war  will  only  draw  the  net  tighter.  If  we 
cannot  find  freedom  in  self-government,  in  peace, 
we  cannot  find  it  at  all.  The  first  step  toward 
freedom  is  to  get  out  of  debt.  Only  thus  can  we 
"break  the  net  of  the  usurer."  How  is  this  done? 
Not  by  more  wars,  more  waste,  more  corruption, 
more  military  occupation  —  with  their  legacy  of 
more  wars,  more  waste,  and  more  corruption.  By 
such  means  the  net  was  spread  in  the  first  place. 
There  is  but  one  way  to  break  it.  It  is  by  mending 
our  own  ways,  by  moving  away  from  the  pitfalls  over 
which  the  net  was  spread.  It  is  by  patience, 
frugality,  limitation  of  governmental  expenditures, 
the  elimination  of  privilege,  by  the  "humble  and 
contrite  heart"  in  public  affairs,  by  preparing  for 
peace  and  not  for  war,  by  stimulating  science,  edu- 
cation, sanitation  and  industry,  by  national  justice, 
economy  and  solvency  —  methods  in  national  ad- 
ministration that  would  bring  about  the  desired 
result  in  the  affairs  of  the  individual.  The  double 
standard  in  morals  of  the  man  and  the  nation  — 
the  idea  that  what  is  wrong  for  the  man  is  right  for 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  231 

the  group  —  this  has  led  only  to  evil.  Equally  evil 
is  the  double  standard  of  economics,  that  what  would 
bankrupt  the  man  would  cover  the  nation  with  glory. 
If  the  system  by  which  men  and  races  are  grouped 
in  nations  is  to  succeed  —  and  it  is  still  on  trial  — 
the  administration  of  nations  must  follow  the  same 
laws  of  ethics  and  economics  which  control  the 
actions  of  men.  "My  country,  right  or  wrong,"  is  a 
principle  as  dangerous  as  the  braggart  assertion  of 
the  "superman"  that  he  will  do  whatever  he  pleases 
regardless  of  the  laws  of  man  or  of  God.  There  is 
no  such  right  of  man  or  nation.  Whatever  mistake 
either  may  make  in  matters  of  ethics  or  of  economics 
brings,  in  its  degree,  its  sure  penalty.  And  "the  net 
of  the  usurer"  is  the  prison  in  which  nations  which 
waste  their  people's  substance  in  whatever  way  will 
find  themselves  presently  confined.  The  road  leads 
through  insolvency  and  violence.  The  sole  escape 
is  to  turn  about  and  go  the  other  way. 

XXII 
THE    FERTILE   DREADNAUGHT 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  advocates  for  peace  who 
stand  at  the  same  time  for  a  great  navy  and  corre- 
sponding military  expenditures? 

We  shall  say  that  we  believe  that  they  are  mis- 


232  WAR  AND  WASTE 

taken.  Without  other  reason  we  may  not  doubt 
their  sincerity.  But  we  may  question  their  judg- 
ment. Nothing  is  more  important  than  the  main- 
tenance of  peace.  But  the  show  of  force  does  not 
seem  a  good  means  to  this  end.  Besides,  it  is  most 
costly.  If  one  fourth  of  our  present  expenditures 
were  more  than  adequate  twenty  years  ago,  half  of 
the  expenditures  of  to-day  are  on  the  wrong  side  of 
the  account.  The  peace  of  Dread  and  Dread- 
naughts  has  little  in  common  with  real  Peace,  the 
Peace  of  Law. 

War  instruments  are  built  for  war.  Their  in- 
fluence tends  toward  its  destined  end.  Those  who 
make  wars  are  not  appalled  by  them.  Reckless  dare- 
devils, these  warriors,  they  fear  nothing;  they  have 
nothing  to  lose.  It  is  the  plain  man  who  pays  the 
cost.  And  cost  multiplies  cost.  Once  started  on 
the  line  of  war  preparation  and  the  expenses  pile  up 
with  mathematical  certainty  and  with  no  regard 
to  real  needs.  Whatever  movement  has  money 
behind  it  calls  for  more  money.  No  nation  has  any 
system  of  checking  expenditure.  Debt  breeds  debt, 
and  waste  breeds  waste.  That  war  expenditures 
are  four  times  as  great  as  twenty  years  ago  implies 
no  increase  of  danger  anywhere.  It  means  only  that 
four  times  as  many  people  are  making  a  living  by 
them.  That  the  taxes  of  the  world  have  doubled  in 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  233 

fifteen  years  rests  on  the  fact  that  twice  as  many 
people  are  tax-eaters. 

It  is  a  fine  saying  of  Norman  Angell,  that  "War  is 
futile  but  not  sterile."  Most  wars  settle  nothing, 
accomplish  nothing;  but  each  is  descended  from  some 
other  war,  and  each  tends  to  become  the  parent  of 
new  conflicts.  Just  so  with  all  schemes  for  expendi- 
ture. The  dreadnaught  is  futile  enough:  no  returns 
of  good  in  any  land  can  be  traced  back  to  it.  But 
it  is  not  sterile.  It  gives  birth  to  new  dreadnaughts, 
at  home  and  abroad.  English  dreadnaughts  breed 
German.  German  dreadnaughts  are  the  parents  of 
the  American  fleet.  Our  navy  is  the  parent  of  the 
growing  fleets  of  Brazil,  Argentina,  and  Japan. 
Each  avoidable  expenditure  calls  for  more  expense. 
Even  worthy  expenditure  has  the  same  bad  habit  as 
the  number  of  persons  interested  in  it  expands.  The 
wedge  of  the  well-earned  pension  of  the  maimed 
soldier  has  opened  the  door  of  something  for  nothing 
for  thousands  of  other  soldiers,  the  gift  culminating 
but  not  ending  in  the  demoralizing  service  pension  of 
to-day. 

Forty  years  ago  the  Germans  exacted  from  France 
the  unheard  of  indemnity  of  a  billion  dollars.  In 
fifty  years  our  Southern  States  have  paid  about 
double  that  sum  in  pensions. 

There  is  under  consideration  at  Washington  a  bill 


234  WAR  AND  WASTE 

which  proposes  to  pay  national  money  to  the  militia 
of  the  various  states.  The  sums  suggested  range 
from  $45  to  $360  yearly  for  each  individual.  This  is 
for  service  hitherto  taken  as  an  honour,  a  patriotic 
duty,  or  a  healthy  recreation.  One  of  the  evil  effects 
of  such  a  proposition  (and  all  its  effects  appear  to  be 
evil)  is  this:  that  such  expense  breeds  more  expense. 
It  is  the  beginning  of  an  attempt  to  create  a  standing 
army,  neither  soldier  nor  civilian,  its  reason  for  exist- 
ence being  the  money  that  is  in  it.  As  more  and 
more  persons  become  financially  interested,  the 
method  of  log-rolling  will  increase  this  largess  from 
a  few  to  many  millions.  It  will  go  the  way  of  the 
pension  bills.  What  was  originally  a  sacred  duty 
of  a  grateful  nation  has  become  one  of  the  scandals 
of  the  century.  The  money  in  it  demands  more 
money.  It  will  be  the  same  with  the  militia  bill. 
Futile  but  not  sterile  are  all  our  preparations  for  war 
in  a  time  of  trebly  assured  peace. 

War  money  makes  war  talk.  War  talk  perverts 
public  opinion.  It  increases  the  possibility  of  war 
by  making  war  seem  easy  and  familiar,  even  inevi- 
table. More  warships,  more  soldiers,  do  not  allay 
this.  They  mean  more  war  money,  more  war  talk, 
more  expenditure. 

The  way  to  peace  lies  in  the  opposite  direction. 
It  lies  in  friendly  relations  and  in  friendly  commerce, 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  235 

in  the  extension  of  international  law,  in  the  patient 
removal  of  possible  stumbling  blocks,  the  loyal 
ignoring  of  real  differences  if  such  exist,  and  making 
war  never  the  first  resort,  but  always  the  very  last 
resort  in  every  real  crisis  of  the  nation. 

XXIII 
THE    SHIPS   AND   THE    TENSION 

What  shall  we  say  as  to  warships  as  a  relief  from 
tension  ? 

In  a  recent  article,  an  American  admiral  uses 
these  words:  "Only  a  few  years  ago  the  people 
of  the  Pacific  Coast,  by  their  treatment  of  an  Oriental 
nation,  brought  about  a  tense  situation  in  which  the 
possible  use  of  our  fleet  required  no  great  stretch  of 
the  imagination.  Had  the  fleet  been  in  the  harbour 
of  San  Francisco  at  that  time  there  would  not  have 
been  many  who  would  have  looked  upon  it  as  a 
burden  and  a  danger." 

Nevertheless,  it  would  have  been  both:  An  over- 
weighted navy  is  a  burden  on  the  taxpayer  at  large. 
Tension  becomes  danger  if  aggravated  by  display  of 
force.  Without  artificial  stimulus  such  petty  and  un- 
justified excitement  will  soon  subside.  Moreover,  it 
is  never  right  to  put  pressure  on  the  scales  of  Justice. 
In  this  case  the  tension  was  kept  alive  by  agitators  on 


236  WAR  AND  WASTE 

both  sides  of  the  ocean,  and  its  echoes  are  heard  yet 
in  mess-rooms  and  barracks.  It  arises  in  one  form 
or  another  at  each  recurrent  session  of  the  Legislature 
of  California.  But  its  original  motive  in  1906  and 
1907,  to  a  great  extent  at  least,  was  not  related  to 
Japan.  One  purpose  was  to  divert  public  attention 
from  schemes  for  robbing  the  City  Treasury.  The 
needed  remedy  was  to  be  found  not  in  warships  but 
in  prosecuting  attorneys,  and  certainly  those  inter- 
ested in  national  honour  and  international  peace 
desired  anything  in  that  juncture  rather  than  more 
ships  or  men. 

It  was  not  "the  people  of  the  Pacific  Coast"  who 
were  concerned  at  this  time.  It  was  simply  the 
School  Boaid  of%one  city,  who,  for  reasons  not  con- 
cerned with  international  affairs,  tried  to  establish 
an  "Oriental  School."  Whether  this  act  if  carried 
out  would  have  been  a  violation  of  a  treaty  or  not 
no  one  yet  knows.  No  one  took  the  trouble  to 
carry  it  before  the  proper  court  —  the  only  sure  way 
to  find  out. 

If  it  was  a  violation,  the  ordinance  would  be  null 
and  void,  as  national  treaties  override  all  local 
statutes.  If  not  a  violation  of  the  treaty,  it  was  no 
business  of  anybody  outside  of  San  Francisco.  It 
could  not  be  a  violation  of  a  treaty  until  some  United 
States  court  should  decide  it  to  be  so.  The  whole 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  237 

matter  should  have  been  taken  to  the  nearest  federal 
court  and  there  disposed  of.  It  was  tried,  however, 
in  the  newspapers  of  Japan  and  the  United  States 
instead.  This  naturally  made  tension,  and  both 
nations  being  armed,  the  discussion  degenerated  into 
war  talk.  But  it  is  hard  to  conceive  that  a  rational 
person  in  either  country  should  dream  of  going  to 
war  for  such  a  reason.  Nor  had  any  person  at  all 
familiar  with  Japanese  affairs  the  slightest  concep- 
tion that  any  ministry  would  commit  suicide  by  an 
attack  on  its  best  market,  a  seaport  of  its  staunchest 
friend  among  the  nations. 

It  is  true  that  a  large  section  of  San  Francisco  was, 
and  is,  eager  for  defense  of  army  and  navy;  but  the 
motive  is  not  fear  of  "an  Oriental  nation."  Quite 
the  reverse.  It  would  welcome  a  Japanese  fleet  as 
warmly  as  our  own  if  it  had  as  much  money  to  spend. 

A  recent  military  journal  states  that  "Uncle  Sam 
is  San  Francisco's  best  customer."  Five  millions  of 
dollars  was  spent  by  the  Commissary  for  supplies  in 
1912.  For  1913,  it  is  estimated  by  the  Quarter- 
master's office  that  the  business  Uncle  Sam  "will 
transact  in  San  Francisco  in  the  fiscal  year  which 
will  end  June  30,1913,  will  be  70  per  cent,  greater 
than  that  of  last  year."  This  would  aggregate 
$8,500,000.  "Ninety  cents  out  of  every  dollar 
of  this  not  inconsiderable  sum"  will  "swell  the  bank 


238  WAR  AND  WASTE 

accounts  of  San  Francisco  merchants,  civilians, 
mechanics,  labourers,  and  others  to  whom  Uncle  Sam 
pays  living  expenses. " 

I  make  no  criticism  of  these  expenditures,  and 
certainly  none  of  the  careful  officers  responsible  for 
the  details.  I  wish  only  to  call  attention  to  the 
general  fact  that  the  coastwise  cities  crave  "defense" 
not  because  of  any  fear  of  foreign  attack  but  because 
Uncle  Sam  is  notoriously  "  a  good  spender. "  Almost 
any  city  would  feel  the  need  of  "national  defense" 
if  it  had  San  Francisco's  opportunity. 

And  yet  eight  and  a  half  millions  is  a  very  large 
sum  of  money.  There  are  two  universities  of  the 
first  class  in  the  vicinity  of  San  Francisco,  one  gener- 
ously endowed  by  the  state,  the  other  by  private 
interests.  In  salaries  of  teachers,  these  two  spend 
little  more  than  a  million  dollars  a  year,  and  their 
supply  account  in  San  Francisco  approaches  two  hun- 
dred thousand  more.  The  Commissary  will  spend 
in  1913,  therefore,  if  our  figures  are  correct,  more 
than  a  dozen  such  universities. 

It  is  proper  to  keep  up  fortifications  and  fleet  at 
San  Francisco,  not  for  defense,  but  for  conformity. 
Forone  thing,  this  is  in  accord  with  a  long-established 
old-world  convention.  But  we  know  that  these 
defenses  are,  in  fact,  as  useless  as  the  buttons  on  the 
back  of  my  coat,  because  they  do  not  defend  us  against 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  239 

any  real  enemy.  The  buttons  on  the  coat  are  re- 
tained in  accord  with  a  good  old-world  convention. 
We  must  wear  these  buttons  until  the  world  agrees 
to  cut  them  off.  In  the  same  way,  until  the  nations 
agree  to  raze  their  fortresses,  we  must  hold  on  to 
ours,  and  we  must  spend  our  money  freely  for  the 
defense  of  the  Golden  Gate. 

XXIV 
FORT   GRAFT 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  defense  of  Los  Angeles? 

This  enterprising  city  was,  until  recently,  twenty 
miles  from  the  sea,  and  being  unfortified  was  im- 
mune from  attack  under  the  laws  of  war. 

Recently,  however,  it  has  annexed  to  itself  the 
seaport  of  San  Pedro  and  the  lots  and  farms  between. 
Near  San  Pedro  and  dominating  the  harbour  of  Los 
Angeles  is  the  fine  large  hill  called  the  Palos  Verdes. 
It  is  reported  that  this  hill  has  been  bought  by  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  at  a  cost  of,  as 
stated,  $249,000,  not  as  a  park,  for  which  nature 
nobly  fitted  it,  but  as  a  coast  defense  to  be  made,  it 
is  claimed,  into  a  second  Gibraltar.  About  $328,000 
is  now  asked  for  as  a  beginning,  and  some  $2,500,000 
is  expected  to  follow. 

By  this  means  Los  Angeles  will  lose  her  war  im- 


240  WAR  AND  WASTE 

munity  —  which  matters  little,  as  there  is  not, 
never  has  been,  and  apparently  can  never  be,  an 
enemy  on  the  outside  which  will  do  her  any  harm. 
For  the  same  reason,  this  fortification  will  certainly 
be  impregnable. 

A  leading  general  is  quoted  as  saying:  "Certainly, 
Los  Angeles  Harbour  must  be  fortified,  but  you  folks 
out  here  must  get  behind  it  and  shove.  The  money 
must  come  from  Congress  and  it  is  your  duty  to  see 
that  Congress  appreciates  your  need.  .  .  .  The 
situation  is  a  live  one,  for  wars  are  not  over  and  never 
will  be  so  long  as  men  are  men.  .  .  .  It  is  not  a 
simple  proposition  of  placing  soldiers.  The  problem 
goes  way  back  of  that,  and  the  people  of  the  coast 
must  play  the  game. " 

It  is  suggested  that  the  fortress  be  known  as  Fort 
Graft,  in  honour  of  its  founder. 

xxv 

THE    DREAM    OF    UNIVERSAL   WAR 

What  shall  we  say  of  those  in  search  of  fighting 
chances  who  still  fix  their  eyes  on  Japan  ? 
-  We  who  know  Japan  as  a  nation  of  patient,  lovable 
people,  intent  on  their  own  affairs,  hopeful,  sensitive, 
eager  for  the  good-will  of  their  neighbours,  burdened 
to  the  utmost  with  the  cost  of  their  experiences  in 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  241 

Korea  and  Manchuria — we  can  see  no  reality  in  their 
signs  and  portents. 

We  cannot  conceive  of  a  war  between  Japan  and 
the  United  States.  We  would  feel  in  such  a  condi- 
tion the  most  intense  humiliation;  but  we  cannot 
imagine  it  as  anywhere  within  the  range  of  human 
possibility.  If  such  a  horror  were  to  come  to  pass 
we  should  have  to  imagine  the  following  series  of 
incidents  in  our  future  history: 

(1)  The  abandonment  of  our  unchanged  tradition 
of  national  friendliness  toward  Japan.     Thus  far, 
whatever  may  have  been  done  or  said  by  individuals, 
our  Government  has  preserved  for  sixty  years  an 
unbroken  attitude  of  courtesy  and  friendliness. 

(2)  That  such  breaches  of  this  rule  as  might  arise 
in  Washington  should  be  of  such  a  character  as  to 
arouse  an  insatiable  feeling  of  humiliation  and  an 
uncontrollable  spirit  of  revenge  on  the  part  of  the 
Japanese  people.     This  spirit  must  be  so  strong  as 
to  overturn  the  patient  and  conservative  ministry 
which  desires  and  must  desire,  above  almost  all  other 
things  political,  to  retain  the  good-will  of  the  United 
States. 

(3)  That  this  supposed  outbreak  should  take  place 
before    the    American    advisers    in    the    Japanese 
Government   could    make   their   influence   felt  to- 
ward mutual  understanding  and  before  the  friends 


242  WAR  AND  WASTE  ! 

of  international  decency  in  America  could  exert  a 
similar  influence. 

(4)  It  would  further  be  essential  that  the  rulers  of 
Japan  should  be  determined  on  national  suicide  in 
the  face  of  this  assumed  provocation.     To  send  an 
armada  to  attack  on  her  own  ground  6,000  miles 
away   a   nation  of  twenty  times   her  wealth  and 
practically   out   of   debt,  with   a   population   half 
greater,  would  be  self-destruction. 

(5)  It  would  involve,  further,  the  necessity  that 
the  cause  of  war  was  so  flagrant  as  to  give  Japan  the 
sympathy  of  the  civilized  world,  and  especially  of  the 
world  of  finance.    This  sympathy  must   be   deep 
enough  to  induce  the  bankers  of  London  and  Paris 
to  give  to  Japan  outright  the  $1,000,000,000,  more 
or  less,  necessary  to  equip  this  armada  and  to  carry 
on  the  war.     They  could  not  lend  the  money,  for  to 
Japan    to-day,    lending   would    be    giving.     Japan 
already   owes   more   than   $1,300,000,000,    and   to 
duplicate  this  debt  would  make  her  securities  worth- 
less.    In  Japanese  affairs  to-day  almost  every  other 
interest  is  subordinated  to  that  of  keeping  her  credit 
good. 

(6)  The  coast  of  Japan  itself  is  no  better  defended 
than  that  of  California.     "It  would  be  compara- 
tively easy  for  an  enemy  of  any  strength  to  land"  at 
Matsushima  in  order  to  overrun  northern  Japan,  to 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  243 

land  at  unprotected  Kamakura  to  flank  and  starve 
Tokyo,  to  land  at  Sakai  to  march  on  Osaka,  and  to 
isolate  Kyoto.  In  fact,  no  nation  with  a  long 
seacoast  can  ever  raise  money  enough,  no  matter  how 
grinding  the  taxation,  to  have  every  foot  of  it  pro- 
tected from  invasion.  On  the  other  hand,  no  such 
invading  army,  in  the  heart  of  a  hostile  country,  with- 
out a  base  of  supplies,  could  ever  finally  escape. 

(7)  As  the  United  States  must  be  responsible  for 
provocation,  whatever  that  may  be,  why  do  we 
assume  that  she  will  act  only  on  the  defensive? 
Is  not  our  monstrous  naval  expenditure  based  on  the 
theory  that  we  shall  "meet  the  enemy  in  the  middle 
of  the  sea  "  ?  1  have  assumed,  of  course,  that  provoca- 
tion would  necessarily  be  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States.  It  is  not  conceivable  that  it  should  be  other- 
wise. No  other  nation  is  so  careless  as  to  civilities, 
though  we  have  not  often  shown  real  insolence.  Any 
one  familiar  with  affairs  in  Japan  must  know  that 
all  her  resources,  and  more,  are  devoted  to  holding  on 
to  what  she  now  has.  The  occupation  of  Korea  is  a 
costly  and  perilous  experiment,  perhaps  necessary 
as  a  defense  against  Russian  aggression,  but  never- 
theless involving  the  nation  in  many  dangers  which 
unexpanded  Japan  would  have  avoided.  The  lease 
of  the  railways  of  South  Manchuria,  with  the  cities 
of  Dairen  and  Port  Arthur,  further  greatly  extends 


244  WAR  AND  WASTE 

the  danger  line  of  Japan.  The  United  States  receive 
more  than  a  third  of  the  exports  of  Japan.  Among 
nations  with  stable  government  she  is  Japan's 
nearest  neighbour  and  most  steadfast  friend.  What- 
ever the  petty  flurries  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  the 
small  rivalries  of  the  European  labourers  with  the 
rice-field  hands,  the  determination  of  the  Japanese 
Government  to  cultivate  friendship  with  us  in  every 
honourable  way  cannot  be  shaken. 

If  any  great  insurance  company  of  the  world  ever 
underwrites  against  war,  a  policy  covering  our  whole 
Pacific  Coast  could  be  had  for  half  the  present  cost 
of  maintaining  the  Presidio  of  Monterey.  Men 
sometimes  speak  of  the  "dream  of  universal  peace" 
as  a  most  desirable  but  quite  impossible  ideality. 
But  it  is  a  reality  so  far  as  it  goes,  and  it  goes  farther 
and  farther  every  year.  Almost  any  nation  could 
attain  it  at  once  by  substituting  in  part  a  civil  tongue 
for  its  reliance  on  army  and  navy.  The  real  obses- 
sion of  the  world  is  "the  dream  of  universal  war." 
This  is  the  noxious  dream  of  our  times. 

XXVI 

THE   DEFENSE   OF   THE    PACIFIC 

What  shall  we  say  to  the  demand  on  the  part  of 
army  experts  for  the  "establishment  of  three  large 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  245 

mobile  forces"  for  the  defense  of  the  Pacific  Coast: 
one  at  Seattle,  one  at  San  Francisco,  and  one  near 
Los  Angeles?  An  American  general  is  quoted  as 
saying  at  Berkeley  recently:  "We  are  prepared  to 
cope  with  the  situation  so  far  as  the  bombardment 
of  cities  and  towns  is  concerned,  but  we  are  not 
prepared  to  protect  our  people  from  the  landing  of  a 
hostile  force  beyond  the  reach  of  our  coast  artillery. 
The  seacoast  defense  is  useless  without  a  mobile  army. 
Now,  how  are  we  to  get  men  for  this  army?  At 
present  there  are  approximately  130,000  to  140,000 
men  in  the  various  stations  of  the  army  service  in  the 
United  States.  We  have  need  of  450,000,  more. 
It  is  imperative  that  a  reserve  be  established,  as  we 
wish  to  train  the  citizen  to  defend  his  country  in  case 
of  war."  [If  this  figure  is  correctly  reported,  some 
50,000  of  reserves  or  militia  are  included,  besides  the 
regular  army  of  about  82,000  men.] 

Elsewhere  military  experts  have  told  us  that  if  a 
large  Oriental  army  should  without  warning  sail  to 
our  coasts,  we  should  be  helpless  without  these  three 
great  forces.  Must  we  take  all  this  seriously? 
And  must  we  stand  the  expense  of  all  these  military 
visions  ? 

It  is  not  stated  how  large  these  mobile  forces 
ought  to  be.  It  is  hard  to  fit  figures  to  a  warrior's 
dream.  Ten  thousand  men  in  each  of  the  ports  is 


246  WAR  AND  WASTE 

an  easy  figure  on  which  to  calculate.  That  means 
another  twenty  millions  a  year  just  for  pay  and 
board  and  keep.  The  great  National  University  to 
which  Washington  gave  his  fortune  more  than  a 
century  ago  could  be  built  for  that.  We  could  do 
wonders  in  storing  and  distributing  our  flood  waters 
for  an  annual  sum  like  that.  And  there  are  other 
expenses  totaling  no  one  knows  what.  The  individ- 
ual cost  of  a  soldier  averages  about  $600  a  year  — 
more  than  double  the  cost  in  other  nations.  But  we 
do  not  begrudge  this.  We  are  willing  that  the  boys 
should  be  well  cared  for.  According  to  the  Army 
and  Navy  Journal  the  total  expense  per  man,  for 
food,  clothing,  and  keep,  is  about  $600  per  year. 
"The  authorized  strength  of  the  army  is  81,500. 
The  amount  of  their  pay,  including  longevity  pay,  is 
#20,236,230.  For  clothing,  subsistence  and  trans- 
portation the  total  is  $16,047,080.  Adding  this  to 
the  pay,  we  have  for  our  army  a  grand  total  of 
$36,283,140,  which  divided  by  81,500  gives  $445. 
Adding  for  what  are  known  as  'overhead  charges' 
gives  us  our  $600  rate. " 

But,  for  some  unexplained  reason,  this  cost  is  but 
one  third  of  our  total  army  expenditures  per  year, 
even  after  deducting  the  cost  of  the  engineer  corps, 
an  institution  of  Peace  though  under  direction  of 
the  War  Department.  Our  people  are  ready,  no 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  247 

doubt,  to  pay  what  is  really  necessary,  but  whatever 
is  in  excess  of  this  is  waste  or  graft.  The  total 
military  cost  for  1910-1 1  is  given  by  Arthur  W.  Allen 
as  $162,357,000.  Deducting  the  expenses  of  the 
Engineer  Corps  and  dividing  this  by  the  number  of 
soldiers  (85,000)  we  have  an  annual  cost  of  about 
$1,300  per  year  for  each.  Army  preparations  would 
be  futile  without  soldiers.  Yet  it  would  appear 
that  if  the  nation  should  discharge  them  all,  the 
saving  would  be  relatively  small.  The  balance  of 
nearly  $75,000,000,  besides  interest,  pensions,  and 
the  time  of  those  who  might  be  employed  in  gainful 
occupations,  represents  still  a  huge  military  estab- 
lishment, more  than  half  as  large  as  the  annual 
cost  of  the  whole  regular  army  of  Great  Britain 
($138,800,000:  262,000  men),  and  as  large  as  the 
ai  my  expenses  ($122,709,000)  of  Austria  ($73,513,000: 
396,000  men),  and  half  greater  than  that  of  Japan 
($49,196,000:  225,000,  men).  Only  in  Great  Britain, 
Russia,  Germany,  and  France  is  the  army  so  costly 
as  in  the  United  States  to-day,  although  all 
the  principal  nations  have  a  larger  fighting  force. 
With  us  the  establishment  costs  vastly  more  than 
the  men. 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  moral  effect  of  these 
garrisons  on  our  coast  cities  and  of  our  coast  cities 
upon  them?  However  well  disposed  and  well  con- 


248  WAR  AND  WASTE 

trolled,  every  idle  garrison  of  idle  men  the  world  over 
is  in  its  degree  a  standing  menace  to  virtue,  a  stand- 
ing target  to  vice.  At  the  best  a  standing  army 
should  be  a  school,  a  school  in  which  two  or  three 
years  brings  graduation,  a  school  in  military  drill 
if  it  must  be,  but  in  industrial  training  as  well,  to  fit 
its  graduates  for  useful  civil  life.  It  should  not  be  a 
life  profession  for  men  debarred  from  marriage. 
The  humble  cottages  of  "Washerwoman's  Row" 
disturb  the  neatness  of  our  army  posts,  hence  married 
soldiers  are  not  wanted.  But  the  choice  remains  — 
marriage  or  vice  —  and  vice  goes  with  barracks  the 
world  over.  Our  own  army  officers  and  post  sur- 
geons have  in  late  years  done  their  best  to  alleviate 
these  conditions,  yet  the  tendencies  remain  still 
true.  The  Secretary  of  War,  with  more  emphasis 
than  I  have  dared  to  use,  speaks  of  our  forty-nine 
army  posts  as  "adjoined  by  dives  and  ill  resorts  of 
the  vilest  character."  It  is  these  conditions,  he 
believes,  "which  make  the  record  of  the  army  in  this 
respect  shameful  beyond  that  of  the  army  of  any 
other  civilized  nation."  This  actual  supremacy 
we  may  doubt,  for  like  conditions  produce  like  results 
in  every  nation,  whenever  idle  men  are  gathered 
together  to  wait  for  the  action  that  may  never  come. 
The  purpose  of  this  added  force  is  to  defend  the 
Pacific  Coast  from  an  "enemy's  attacks."  We  ask 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  249 

again,  What  enemy?  It  is  plain  that  no  such  enemy 
exists.  "The  large  Oriental  army"  which  shall  slip 
away  from  Asia,  running  the  gauntlet  of  hundreds  of 
reporters,  American  and  European,  to  land  unsus- 
pected at  Monterey,  could  come  from  nowhere. 
There  is  no  such  possibility  outside  of  the  land  of 
dreams. 

A  hundred  thousand  men  is  perhaps  a  "large 
army."  This  would  require  an  armada  of  more 
than  fifty  ships,  sailing  six  thousand  miles,  to  land 
on  a  very  unwelcome  coast. 

The  average  yearly  cost  of  the  Japanese  soldiers 
has  been  underestimated  at  $219  per  year.  Pro- 
visions come  higher  in  California,  and  this  supposed 
landing  would  exhaust  a  good  deal  of  ammunition. 
But  at  the  lowest  estimate  it  would  cost  very  many 
millions  in  cash  to  equip  and  start  this  army.  It 
could  not  be  done  from  funds  in  hand  in  any  Oriental 
nation.  It  could  not  be  borrowed  in  London  or  Paris 
or  New  York,  for  every  yen  securable  by  the  issue 
of  bonds  was  exhausted  in  the  war  with  Russia,  for 
which  Japan  has  $1,325,000,000  yet  to  pay.  Japan 
has  reached  the  limit  of  taxation.  She  can  borrow 
no  more.  She  would  not  fight  us  if  she  could.  She 
could  not  fight  us  if  she  would.  The  United  States 
still  is,  as  she  always  has  been,  Japan's  most  stead- 
fast friend  and  her  best  customer.  Japan's  outside 


25o  WAR  AND  WASTE 

interests  lie  in  Asia,  all  of  them  —  in  Korea  and 
Manchuria  —  and  her  hold  on  these  regions  is 
absolutely  conditioned  on  her  friendship  with  the 
United  States.  The  coast  of  Japan,  for  that  matter, 
is  far  more  vulnerable  than  our  own.  "A  large 
army"  could  land  almost  anywhere  in  Japan.  But, 
six  thousand  miles  from  its  base  of  supplies,  it  could 
never  get  away  again.  No  coast  of  any  nation 
could  ever  be  ideally  and  perfectly  protected. 
There  is  always  room  for  more  men,  more  ships, 
more  forts.  If  it  were  perfectly  defended,  the  cost 
of  protection,  and  the  presence  of  these  thousands 
on  thousands  of  idle  men,  would  be  a  menace  worse 
than  an  enemy's  invasion. 

"The  Dream  of  Universal  War"  with  which  some 
of  our  military  experts  have  become  obsessed  has  no 
foundation  in  any  needs  of  the  United  States.  It  is 
a  natural  result,  perhaps,  of  the  existence  of  great 
armies  and  great  navies  maintained  in  idleness. 
The  leaders  of  these  armies  and  navies  find  in  their 
dreams  a  world  where  soldiery  is  not  play  but  action. 
We  listen  to  them,  and  we  open  our  treasuries  at 
their  behest  because  their  art  is  one  we  do  not 
understand.  Everywhere  the  people's  money  is 
spent  as  money  was  never  spent  before  on  the  "great 
illusion"  —  that  of  ideal  defense  against  imaginary 
dangers. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  251 

XXVII 
PEARL   HARBOR 

What  shall  we  say  of  Pearl  Harbor,  our  new 
stronghold  of  the  sea? 

We  have  been  told  that  Hawaii  has  dangers  both 
within  and  without.  As  a  coaling  station  it  com- 
mands the  Pacific.  As  a  community  it  is  commanded 
by  Japan.  There  are  nearly  four  Japanese  to  every 
Caucasian  on  the  islands.  This  is  no  surprise  for 
the  same  relation  existed  when  their  white  rulers 
turned  these  islands  over  to  us.  One  military  expert 
soberly  declares  that  there  are  35,000  Japanese 
ex-soldiers  on  the  islands,  each  ready  to  rise  at  a 
signal  from  home.  This  we  know  is  not  true. 
There  are  not  35,000  ex-soldiers  in  Hawaii,  nor  any 
other  number  worth  considering.  If  there  were,  it 
would  signify  nothing,  as  they  have  neither  money 
nor  arms  nor  officers,  nor  any  understanding  with  the 
Japanese  Government.  They  are  former  rice-field 
hands,  now  labourers  on  the  sugar  plantations. 
The  mutual  relations  of  the  many  races  in  Hawaii 
are  singularly  amiable.  Honolulu  is  the  cross-roads 
of  the  greatest  ocean.  All  races  meet  there  in  the 
most  cosmopolitan  of  societies.  Mutual  knowledge 
breeds  mutual  respect.  The  ordinary  police  of  the 


252  WAR  AND  WASTE 

most  peaceable  of  towns  suffices  for  all  internal  de- 
fense of  Honolulu.  Moreover,  whatever  the  census 
may  show,  the  people  are  all,  of  choice,  American: 
English,  German,  Portuguese,  Chinese,  Japanese, 
Hawaiians  even.  There  is  not  the  least  doubt  of 
that. 

But  what  of  the  other  menace  from  without? 
Do  not  Oriental  nations  look  with  envious  eyes  on  our 
Gibraltar  of  the  Pacific  ?  Surely  that  need  not  worry 
us.  What  they  might  do  if  they  could  is  only  a 
matter  of  conjecture.  What  they  cannot  do  if  they 
would  is  a  matter  of  simple  mathematics.  Once 
in  a  century  a  nation  can  fight  as  Japan  fought  in 
Manchuria.  That  was  the  last  time.  Before  the 
next  century  comes,  the  combined  work  of  commerce, 
civilization,  and  finance  will  put  an  end  to  inter- 
national struggles.  One  impulse  in  the  recent  wars 
in  Europe  has  been  the  certainty  that  the  close 
season  for  war  is  soon  coming  on.  Surely  our 
fortifications  about  Honolulu  and  Pearl  Harbor 
would  prove  ample  as  defense  were  there  anywhere 
an  enemy. 

Our  Secretary  of  War,  the  least  exacting  of  our 
military  experts,  speaks  of  the  great  strategic  im- 
portance of  Pearl  Harbor,  of  more  value  for  "the 
protection  of  the  entire  Pacific  Coast  from  attack 
than  any  one  of  the  positions  on  that  coast  now  so 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  253 

strongly  fortified.  No  naval  enemy  could  make  a 
serious  effective  attack  upon  any  portion  of  the 
American  Pacific  Coast  unless  it  had  first  reduced 
the  position  at  Oahu,  threatening  its  flank. " 

This  is  doubtless  perfectly  true;  but  vastly  more 
important  is  the  fact  that  there  is  no  such  enemy, 
and  there  can  be  none.  The  enemy's  flank  is  already 
turned.  It  is  turned  by  the  crushing  debt  of  past 
war  and  by  the  grinding  residue  of  present  taxation. 
It  is  turned  by  the  friendship  and  justice  of  civilized 
nations,  by  the  interrelations  of  business,  by  the 
great  banker's  hatred  for  war  and  waste.  Magnif- 
icent as  is  the  naval  station  at  Pearl  Harbor,  im- 
pregnable as  is  its  Gibraltar-like  defense,  these  is- 
lands lie  in  the  zone  of  peace.  They  are  centres 
of  no  present  struggles,  no  future  outbreaks  of 
ferocity.  To  the  student  of  world  affairs,  their 
people  of  many  races  live  in  noble  harmony,  and  an 
armed  garrison  is  no  more  needed  there  than  in 
Kokomo  or  Kalamazoo. 

Japan  has  earned  the  right  to  be  let  alone,  while  she 
works  out  her  own  distressing  problems  of  tax  and 
debt  and  malemployment  of  men,  all  these  with 
their  necessary  results  in  the  rising  cost  of  living. 

When  the  writer  was  in  Japan  not  long  since,  an 
editor  came  from  Osaka  to  meet  him  at  Nagoya  to 
ask  the  cause  of  the  rise  in  the  cost  of  living  in  Osaka. 


254  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Why  is  it  that  the  farmer  about  the  Inland  Sea  of 
Japan  can  no  longer  afford  to  eat  the  rice  he  raises, 
but  must  sell  it  to  buy  cheaper  rice,  meanwhile 
living  on  three-quarter  rations?  He  cannot  use  his 
own  crop,  because  he  must  sell  it  to  pay  his  taxes, 
that  his  nation  "may  keep  her  place  among  the  great 
Powers  of  the  World." 

In  the  Japanese  journal  Shin  Nikon,  Mr.  Nagai 
Ryutaro  presents  the  case  of  these  people;  an 
"appeal  in  behalf  of  those  unable  to  appeal": 
"Thousands  upon  thousands  of  our  compatriots," 
says  Ryutaro,  "are  on  the  verge  of  starvation. 
'What  little  value  is  set  on  human  life!'  Mencius 
once  asked  King  Yeh  of  Liang  (China) :  '  Is  there  any 
difference  between  killing  men  by  the  sword  and  by 
means  of  government?'  'None/  replied  the  King. 
If  future  historians  accuse  modern  statesmen  of  the 
slaughter  of  people  by  maladministration,  what 
grounds  will  there  be  to  deny  the  charge?  I  appeal 
on  behalf  of  those  who  are  unable  to  appeal!" 

XXVIII 
MAGDALENA   BAY 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  Magdalena  Bay  incident, 
a  pure  hoax  at  best,  and  of  its  treatment  by  the 
American  Press? 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  255 

Here  is  the  story  as  told  in  headlines  of  leading 
newspaoers  in  New  York: 

Japan  in  Mexico  stirs  Senate.  Ultimatum  sent  to  Madero. 
Senator  Lodge  asks  President  for  information  on  the  Jap- 
anese plan  to  put  a  big  colony  on  Magdalena  Bay.  In 
secret  note  a  year  ago  Great  Britain  demanded  that  U.  S. 
stop  activities  of  the  Mikado's  Government. 

Alarmed  by  the  plan  of  Japan  to  obtain  an  official  foothold  along 
Magdalena  Bay,  where  she  will  be  a  direct  menace  to  the 
United  States,  Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  to-day  intro- 
duced a  resolution  calling  on  the  President  for  all  informa- 
tion in  the  possession  of  the  Government  relating  to  the 
purchase  of  the  land  in  that  vicinity  by  the  Japanese 
Government  or  by  a  Japanese  company.  The  resolution 
was  adopted. 

Warning  to  Japan  on  Magdalena  Bay.  Cabinet  members  be- 
lieve Taft's  reply  to  Lodge  will  end  her  schemings.  Steam- 
ship line  as  a  cloak.  Potential  gravity  of  the  situation  not 
known.  Land  long  owned  by  Americans  sought. 

Japan's  designs  against  U.  S.  to  be  revealed  by  inquiry  under 
Lodge's  resolution.  Open  charge  of  bad  faith  in  acquiring 
foothold  in  Magdalena  Bay  based  on  information  that 
Nippon  government  is  backing  the  venture.  Mikado  is 
determined  to  test  the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  Mexico.  Move- 
ments of  Japs  to  Magdalena  began  immediately  after  Diaz 
cancelled  arrangement  with  the  U.  S.  for  use  of  the  place. 
Engineers  recently  prepared  plans  for  a  Japanese  city. 

Our  old  friend,  the  Japanese  "War  Scare,"  as  a  friend  of  ade- 
quate Naval  increase.  The  Herald  might  be  expected  to  be 
tempted  to  join  the  chorus  of  the  "The  War  Scare"  which  is 
sure  to  be  raised  over  the  reports  that  the  Japanese  have 
made  arrangement  with  the  Mexican  Government  for  a 
naval  base  on  Magdalena  Bay,  but  as  an  enemy  of  sham  and 


256  WAR  AND  WASTE 

a  promoter  of  good  international  relations  it  is  compelled  to 
say  bluntly  that  the  whole  matter  is  an  attenuated  fraud, 
with  its  hair  a  little  thinner  and  its  beard  a  little  whiter  than 
when  it  made  its  last  appearance,  just  a  trifle  more  than  a 
year  ago.  There  is  always  some  ulterior  motive  connected 
with  the  revival  of  this  absurd  report.  Those  who  foster  it 
seem  to  imagine  that  it  might  influence  this  country  to 
intervene  in  Mexico.  The  theory  is  that  unless  the  United 
States  takes  and  annexes  Mexico  the  Japanese  will  get  such 
a  foothold  before  the  Panama  Canal  is  opened  that  this 
country  will  have  to  fight  the  armies  of  Japan  just  across  the 
Rio  Grande.  Not  even  a  necessary  evil.  The  last  time 
this  precious  imposition  was  fostered  by  the  interests  that 
desired  intervention,  General  Madero  was  leading  a  revolu- 
tion against  President  Diaz.  Then  the  Japanese  naval 
base  was  to  be  in  the  Bay  of  Todos  Santos,  in  Lower  Cali- 
fornia. The  yarn  went  clear  around  the  world,  and  was 
scotched  and  killed  by  the  Herald,  which  interviewed  the 
most  prominent  statesmen  of  Japan.  It  was  buried  by 
President  Taft  on  March  25th,  concluding  with  the  state- 
ment, "I  am  most  happy  to  be  able  to  reciprocate  those 
assurances."  It  is  not  necessary  to  get  up  a  Japanese  "war 
scare"  to  show  the  country  how  its  interests  are  being  im- 
perilled by  the  action  of  the  house  democrats  in  rejecting 
any  battleships  increase  this  year.  The  country  knows  that 
unless  we  have  an  adequate  navy  any  dream  of  this  sort  that 
any  coterie  of  adventurers  might  invent  could  come  true. 

New  warning  to  the  world  and  to  Japan.  President  will  restate 
our  determination  to  enforce  Monroe  Doctrine.  Hands  off 
the  hemisphere.  Taft's  reply  to  the  Lodge  resolution  will 
thwart  Magdalena  Bay  negotiations. 

Magdalena  Bay  quest  in  senate.  President  asked  to  tell  what  he 
knows  of  Japan's  intentions.  Lodge  pushes  inquiry.  Re- 
cent reports  have  caused  revival  of  coaling  station  story. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  257 

Denials  by  Mexico.  Information  that  a  steamship  com- 
pany first  seeks  a  foothold.  Move  thought  a  cloak.  No 
advantage  in  the  Bay  for  commercial  vessels,  but  ideal  for 
warships. 

Japs  tried  to  buy  Magdalena  Bay  land  of  Yankees  now  holding 
it.  American  owners  dickered  with  Orientals  who  wished 
to  use  fishing  concessions,  found  colony  of  Japanese  labourers, 
and  form  Japanese-American  steamship  line.  President 
will  say  in  his  reply  to  Senate  resolution  U.  S.  State  depart- 
ment advised  against  sale.  Proposed  scheme,  in  which 
Japanese  Government  did  not  appear,  fell  through.  This 
country  could  get  land  but  doesn't  want  it,  as  Mexico  won't 
cede  sovereignty.  The  strip  of  land  is  five  hundred  miles 
long  and  sixteen  wide. 

Find  evidence  of  Japan-Mexico  deal.  Commercial  company 
seeks  2,000,000  acres  on  Magdalena  Bay.  Ideal  coaling 
station.  Site  has  little  value  except  for  naval  purposes  — 
Lodge  resolution  goes  to  State  Department.  Navy's  head 
sees  warning  in  issue.  "This  agitation  over  coaling  stations 
and  the  Magdalena  Bay  affair  would  not  excite  so  much 
apprehension  if  the  prospects  were  good  of  keeping  up  a 
strong  navy  in  the  future. "  —  George  von  L.  Meyer  Secretary 
of  the  Navy. 

Magdalena  Bay  story  "merest  buncombe, "  says  chairman  Sulzer 
of  the  Foreign  Affairs  Committee  of  the  House.  No  foun- 
dation in  fact.  Taft's  reply  to  the  Lodge  resolution  will  be 
reassuring  in  regard  to  our  relations  with  Japan. 

Japan's  Premier  tells  the  Times  there  is  no  Magdalena  Bay 
incident.  Fishing  rights  have  been  obtained  by  the  Orien- 
tal Whaling  Company  of  Japan.  Far  from  Magdalena  Bay. 
Not  in  Lower  California  at  all,  but  along  750  miles  of  the 
mainland.  Others  have  same  rights.  Senators  and  mem- 
bers of  House  deeply  impressed  by  the  message.  Call  plot 
itory  exploded.  Senator  Lodge  is  gratified  with  statement 


258  WAR  AND  WASTE 

that  seems  to  explain.    Marquis  Saionji's  statement  to  the 
Times. 

The  New  York  Times  having  invited  Marquis  Saionji,  Prime  Min- 
ister of  Japan,  to  explain  the  reports  that  Japan  was  nego- 
tiating for  a  naval  base  at  Magdalena  Bay,  in  the  Mexican 
territory  of  Lower  California,  Marquis  Saionji  cabled  yester- 
day a  reply  to  the  Japanese  Ambassador  in  Washington,  by 
whom  it  was  delivered  to  the  Times.  Marquis  Saionji  says 
there  have  been  no  negotiations  for  Magdalena  Bay,  but  the 
Oriental  Whaling  Company  of  Japan  acquired  fishing  rights, 
in  common  with  citizens  and  subjects  of  other  countries,  not 
at  Magdalena  Bay,  but  on  the  mainland  of  Mexico,  along  a 
strip  of  coast  750  miles  long  between  the  states  of  Tepic 
and  Oaxaca. 

This  Magdalena  Bay  is  a  hamlet  on  the  shore  of 
the  desert  part  of  Lower  California.  Its  roadstead 
is  an  excellent  harbour,  well  suited,  no  doubt,  for  a 
coaling  station  if  Mexico  had  any  need  of  such 
stations.  The  land  about  it  is  worthless,  the  region 
being  virtually  rainless.  Its  empty  sand  dunes  fit 
it  well  for  target  practice,  although  the  shock  of  big 
guns  has  killed  its  shellfish  on  the  bottom.  On  one 
island  is  a  village  of  one  hundred  people,  clustered 
about  a  crab  and  turtle  cannery  owned  in  Los 
Angeles.  The  foreman  of  the  cannery  and  five 
crab-catchers  are  Japanese.  On  another  island  is  a 
brackish  spring  rising  among  the  sand  dunes,  the 
only  available  water  for  scores  of  miles. 

Government  lands  and  everything  else  available 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  259 

for  exploitation  in  Mexico  has  been  parcelled  out  in 
concessions,  these  mostly  held  by  foreigners.  The 
fishing  concession  of  Lower  California  is  held  by  a 
Mexican  resident  of  Los  Angeles.  Such  capital  as 
is  associated  with  him  in  this  concession  is  French. 
An  option  on  the  desert  land  concession  about  the 
Bay  is  held  in  the  United  States.  No  attempt  has 
been  made  by  the  Japanese  Government,  nor  by 
any  Japanese  capitalist,  syndicate,  nor  corpor- 
ation to  secure  anything  in  Lower  California. 
One  Japanese  gentleman,  without  capital  and  rep- 
resenting nobody,  once  went  down  to  look  over 
Magdalena  Bay,  and  that  is  all.  Other  Japanese 
have  examined  the  fishing  concessions  below  Tepic 
and  have  abandoned  the  proposition  as  not  worth 
while. 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  newspapers  ?  Only  this, 
perhaps:  our  country  has  no  monopoly  of  spurious 
news.  Great  London  journals  may  pervert  the 
truth  with  more  dignity;  great  German  journals 
may  obscure  it  with  more  ponderosity;  great 
French  journals  may  twist  it  with  more  vivac- 
ity. But  the  fact  remains  that  crooked  journal- 
ism is  crooked  journalism  the  world  over.  True, 
there  may  be  some  choice  as  to  methods,  but 
there  certainly  cannot  be  much  as  to  motive  or 
result. 


260  WAR  AND  WASTE 

XXIX 

THE    SAMOAN    PRECEDENT 

What  shall  we  say  of  our  operations  in  Nicaragua  ? 
No  one  seems  to  know.  Our  marines  have  fought 
bravely  against  somebody,  and  good  men  have  lost 
their  lives.  The  Department  of  State  gives  no  clear 
explanation,  but  it  is  stated  in  the  press  that  it  finds 
a  precedent  in  our  intervention  in  German  Samoa  in 
the  year  1899. 

It  may  be  remembered  that  the  natives  in  Apia 
were  "doing  politics"  rather  warmly,  but  in  their 
own  fashion,  when,  without  orders  and  on  their  own 
initiative,  a  British  and  an  American  warship  in  the 
harbour  began  to  shell  the  town.  The  single  Ameri- 
can property  owner  on  the  beach,  Mr.  H.  J.  Moors, 
told  me  that  he  supposed  that  the  ships  were  firing 
salutes  until  the  shells  fell  about  his  hotel.  He  had 
asked  for  no  intervention  or  protection.  Afterward 
marines  were  landed  from  both  ships,  and  these, 
according  to  the  record,  "fought  shoulder  to  shoulder 
against  a  savage  foe."  The  "savage  foe"  was  led 
by  the  genial  and  pious  and,  in  his  degree,  scholarly 
Mata'afa.  The  machine  gun  of  the  invaders  became 
"jammed,"  and  some  of  the  men  were  killed.  One 
of  the  "savages"  showed  me  the  road  the  invaders 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  261 

took  while  Mata'afa's  men  were  hidden  in  the 
"bush"  alongside.  They  could  have  killed  all  the 
marines  except  for  the  orders  of  their  chief.  After- 
ward this  matter  of  "armed  intervention"  was 
brought  before  the  king  of  Sweden  as  arbitrator,  and 
it  was  decreed  that  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  are  "responsible  for  the  loss  caused  by  their 
military  action."  The  decision  asserted  the  prin- 
ciple that  a  nation  "has  no  right  to  land  troops  in 
order  to  preserve  the  property  or  the  lives  of  her  na- 
tionals." The  United  States  agreed  to  pay  the  dam- 
ages assessed,  at  the  same  time  refusing  to  recognize 
the  principle  involved.  In  any  event,  probably  this 
incident  would  serve  better  as  a  warning  than  as  a 
precedent. 

XXX 

JAPANESE    IMMIGRATION 

What  shall  we  say  of  Japanese  immigration? 
Only  this :  There  is  no  problem  now,  and  if  we  let 
well  enough  alone  there  will  be  no  problem  in  the 
future. 

Most  of  us  in  California  hope  to  avoid  a  racial 
stratification  of  any  sort  among  our  people.  Least 
of  all  do  we  want  a  body  of  labourers,  Asiatic  be- 
cause they  are  underpaid  and  underpaid  because  they 


262  WAR  AND  WASTE 

are  Asiatic.  Most  of  those  in  Japan  who  think  upon 
the  subject  do  not  want  the  rice-field  hands  to  go 
where  they  are  not  wanted,  where  their  presence  pro- 
duces economic  disturbances,  or  to  go  anywhere  in 
such  numbers  that  other  people  judge  all  their  coun- 
trymen by  them. 

For  all  these  reasons,  representatives  of  the  two 
nations  met  in  1907,  on  the  "gentlemen's  agree- 
ment," that  no  Japanese  labourers  should  be  granted 
passports  for  America,  and  that  no  legislation  hu- 
miliating to  Japan  should  be  favourably  considered 
at  Washington.  This  "gentlemen's  agreement" 
has  been  rigidly  kept  by  the  Japanese  foreign  office. 
The  Japanese  construe  the  word  America  in  a  broad 
sense,  for  since  1907  the  emigration  of  labourers 
has  been  debarred  from  Canada  and  Mexico  as  well 
as  from  the  Pacific  States  and  from  Hawaii. 

Some  time  in  the  long  future  our  country  may  be 
wise  enough  to  frame  immigration  acts  which  shall 
treat  all  nations  of  the  world  alike.  This  problem, 
most  difficult  at  the  best,  cannot  be  settled  offhand 
nor  can  it  be  settled  now.  Perhaps  some  time  we 
may  see  our  way  to  admit  skilled  labourers  only,  from 
any  region,  and  only  when  accompanied  by  their 
families.  But  no  final  adjustment  is  possible  now; 
and  all  the  Japanese  ask  for  is  to  be  spared  the 
humiliation  involved  in  any  scheme  for  the  exclusion 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  263 

of  Asiatics  as  Asiatics.  This  is  a  matter  of  national 
sensitiveness  to  a  highly  cultivated  and  sensitive 
people;  and  needlessly  to  hurt  such  a  nation  is  to 
hurt  ourselves.  For  the  lines  of  commerce  run  in 
grooves  of  international  friendliness.  An  indirect 
exclusion  act,  as  of  races  not  eligible  for  citizenship, 
is  more  humiliating  than  a  direct  act  would  be.  It 
implies  that  the  Japanese  cannot  read  between  the 
lines.  Exclusion  from  citizenship,  for  which  dis- 
crimination if  indeed  it  really  exists  no  adequate 
cause  exists,  is  of  the  nature  of  insult  in  itself.  To  be 
shut  out  because  they  have  been  insulted  once  adds 
doubly  to  a  humiliation  they  have  no  power  to  resent, 
but  which  they  hope  their  nearest  friend  among  the 
nations  will  not  offer  them. 

If  an  exclusion  act  were  necessary  in  our  interest, 
or  our  own  protection,  it  might  be  a  painful  alter- 
native. But  there  is  no  need  for  any  action  whatever. 

Who  is  there  who  would  wish  to  break  the  "gen- 
tlemen's aggreement"  in  order  to  substitute  an 
"exclusion  act"?  Not  the  labourers  of  California 
who  fear  Japanese  competition,  for  such  exclusion 
is  now  perfectly  accomplished.  To  throw  the  matter 
again  into  international  diplomacy  would  end  in  less 
perfect  restriction  than  we  have  now.  For  restriction 
can  be  made  most  effective  when  the  Japanese 
foreign  office  itself  undertakes  it.  The  people  of  the 


264  WAR  AND  WASTE 

Pacific  States,  who  fear  lest  they  be  overrun  with 
Japanese  labourers,  have  no  need  to  ask  for  further 
legislation,  for  Japanese  labourers  cannot  come  while 
this  "gentlemen's  agreement"  stands. 

In  the  end  if  we  keep  up  futile  agitation,  a  dis- 
gusted nation  will  be  likely  to  remove  all  barriers, 
letting  West  meet  East  wherever  it  will,  each  taking 
its  own  chances. 

XXXI 

ANTI-ALIEN   LEGISLATION    IN   CALIFORNIA 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  propositions  made  in  each 
recurrent  California  Legislature  to  restrict  land 
ownership  by  aliens  in  the  state? 

These  four  propositions  seem  to  be  true : 

1.  Such  statutes  are  unconstitutional,  if  directed 
against  aliens  of  any  particular  nationality. 

2.  They  are  invalid,  if  in  contravention  of  any 
existing  treaty.     This  and  the  preceding  being  mat- 
ters to  be  finally  determined  in  the  federal  courts. 

3.  They  are  not  valid  if  attacking  the  present 
legal  rights  of  ownership. 

4.  They  would,  if  directed  against  all  alien  owner- 
ship, have  sweeping  effects,  not  yet  estimated. 

As  to  the  first  point:  Under  our  Constitution  a 
State  as  such  cannot  make  any  treaty  or  agreement 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  265 

with  a  foreign  nation,  nor  with  any  group  of  its 
people  considered  collectively  as  members  of  such 
nation.  It  can  therefore  not  single  out  as  objects 
of  special  legislation  the  citizens  of  any  foreign 
nation  who  may  be  resident  within  the  state.  This 
condition  is  not  changed  in  fact  if  such  aliens  be 
named  indirectly  as  "aliens  not  eligible  to  citizen- 
ship." Such  subterfuge  does  not  change  the  intent 
or  the  effect  of  the  statute. 

If  this  principle  is  correct,  no  State  legislation, 
anti-Japanese,  can  be  valid. 

It  may  be,  however,  that  the  reference  in  the 
statute  to  such  aliens,  ineligible  under  United  States 
Law,  throws  the  responsibility  back  on  the  United 
States  as  the  original  author  of  such  discrimination. 
It  is,  however,  not  yet  certain  who  is  really  thus 
eligible.  Under  the  statutes  of  1870,  passed  before 
there  were  any  Japanese  property  holders  in  the 
United  States,  Chinese  only  were  intended  to  be 
excluded,  men  black  and  white  being  eligible  to 
citizenship  under  this  law.  Hindus,  Syrians,  and 
numerous  Japanese  have  been  already  naturalized. 

As  to  the  second  point:  A  statute  would  be 
invalid  if  violating  the  provisions  of  any  inter- 
national treaty  of  the  United  States.  The  aliens 
in  the  United  States  are,  in  a  sense  and  of  necessity, 
"wards  of  the  nation,"  acquiring  their  rights  of 


266  WAR  AND  WASTE 

travel  and  residence  primarily  through  international 
treaties  and  international  law. 

No  statute  of  the  State  is,  however,  invalid  until 
it  has  been  so  declared  by  the  federal  courts.  The 
remedy  for  any  person  aggrieved  is  therefore  to  be 
found,  not  in  diplomacy  nor  in  journalism,  but  in 
appeal  to  the  courts. 

It  has  not  been  finally  decided  that  a  Japanese  is 
not  eligible  to  citizenship,  nor  that  he  is  a  "Mon- 
golian" by  race  or  by  origin. 

As  to  the  third  point:  We  have  the  decision  of 
the  Hague  Tribunal  in  1905,  in  the  noted  House  Tax 
case  in  Japan  ("The  British  Isles,  Germany,  and 
France  vs.  Japan.")  In  this  case  it  was  decided 
that  a  nation  could  not  alter  the  conditions  under 
which  aliens  have  obtained  title  to  land  except  with 
the  consent  of  such  owners.  If  Japan  cannot  change 
concessions  or  sales  made  under  former  conditions 
to  foreigners  resident  in  what  were  then  her  "treaty 
ports,"  without  their  consent,  then  California  can- 
not force  aliens  having  legal  titles  to  property  to 
sell  such  property  within  any  given  time  —  nor  can 
she  in  any  legal  way  take  away  such  property  from 
them.  An  anti-alien  land  law  apparently  cannot  be 
made  retroactive,  or  change  conditions  once  legalized. 

As  to  the  fourth  point:  The  bulk  of  alien  owner- 
ship in  California  is  British.  As  to  the  theory  in- 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  267 

volved,  there  is  no  doubt  something  to  be  said  on 
either  side;  but  how  the  state  would  finally  come  out 
with  a  sudden  reversal  of  policy,  no  one  knows. 

Any  state  statute  applying  exclusively  to  aliens 
of  any  special  nationality,  however  disguised  in 
phraseology,  must  apparently  be  unconstitutional. 
Such  a  statute  would  rest  on  the  impossible  doctrine 
that  a  federal  state  may  form  alliances  or  have 
differences  with  a  foreign  nation,  without  involv- 
ing the  United  States.  This  is,  in  another  form, 
the  old  theory  of  "nullification"  —  that  a  state 
may  assume  to  itself  powers  reserved  to  the  federal 
government. 

If  it  should  be  finally  decided  that  the  alien  land 
act  as  actually  passed  in  California  is  in  fact  consti- 
tutional and  that  a  state  has  a  right  to  entangle  the 
United  States  in  an  international  problem,  the  na- 
tion has  two  duties: 

1.  To  amend  the  Constitution  in  such  a  way  that 
all  international  problems  and  all  matters  dealing 
with  aliens  shall  be  taken  from  the  hands  of  the 
state  and  left  solely  in  the  hands  of  the  central 
Government. 

2.  The  statutes  concerning  naturalization  should 
be  so  amended  as  to  allow  any  permanent  resident 
to  become  a  citizen  without  regard  to  race  or  na- 
tionality.     This  is  for  our  own  protection  as  well  as 


268  WAR  AND  WASTE 

for  his.     Otherwise  all  his  actions  and  the  incidents 
of  his  life  are  subjects  of  foreign  diplomacy. 

It  is  said  by  some  that  it  is  the  duty  of  California 
to  "guard  the  frontier"  of  Caucasian  civilization; 
but  we  should  remember  that  the  frontier  belongs 
not  to  California  but  to  the  nation,  and  California's 
method  of  guarding  it  should  meet  the  nation's 
approval.  Furthermore,  as  Japan  and  China  must 
be  near  neighbours  of  California  for  the  next  thou- 
sand years,  it  is  necessary  above  all  that  the  frontier 
be  guarded  in  courtesy  and  in  friendship. 

XXXII 
THE    RACE    PROBLEMS    OF   AMERICA 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  Race  Problems  as  shown 
on  our  Pacific  Coast?  There  are  reasons,  obvious 
enough,  why  unrestricted  immigration  of  labourers 
from  any  of  the  nations  of  Asia  to  the  Pacific  Coast 
is  not  desirable.  On  the  other  hand,  this  is  a  settled 
issue,  and  the  agitation  of  the  day  is  in  favour  of  dis- 
crimination against  Asiatics  among  the  people  act- 
ually here  and  actually  resident  in  America. 

The  sole  apparent  justification  of  this  discrimina- 
tion lies  in  the  fact  that  we  may  otherwise  develop 
another  race  problem  akin  to  the  one  which  now  dis- 
turbs our  Southern  States. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  269 

No  investigation  of  this  matter  has  been  made  by 
any  competent  authority.  One  opinion  is  as  good 
as  another,  and  my  own  opinion  is  that  this  fear  is 
groundless. 

The  race  antipathy  on  which  it  is  supposed  to 
rest  has  no  honourable  existence.  It  rests  mainly  on 
ignorance  and  prejudice,  and  even  then  it  can  only 
be  maintained  through  constant  efforts  of  those 
seemingly  anxious  to  keep  it  alive. 

The  problem  of  the  South  is  not  that  of  two  race's 
inhabiting  the  same  region,  nor  of  a  people  of  differ- 
ing habits,  the  one  thinly  scattered  among  the  other. 
It  is  the  problem  of  a  mixed  race,  its  parentage  on 
the  one  hand  and  sometimes  on  both  regarded  as 
inferior  —  suddenly  raised  from  slavery  to  freedom 
as  a  result  of  war.  Even  in  the  South  the  responsi- 
bility for  race  friction  rests  largely  with  ourselves. 

It  was  an  avowed  purpose  of  our  Civil  War  "to 
settle  once  for  all  that  men  were  men"  —  that  is,  a 
man  should  count  for  what  he  is  worth  irrespective 
of  race  or  ancestry.  We  should,  as  Lincoln  once 
observed,  not  say  that  he  belongs  to  a  lower  race  and 
hence  must  have  a  lowlier  seat. 

Too  many  of  us  — and  especially  since  the  war 
in  the  Philippines  —  have  forgotten  this  principle, 
and  the  most  hopeless  feature  of  the  matter  is  that 
our  negroes  have  themselves  failed  to  grasp  its  mean- 


270  WAR  AND  WASTE 

ing,  for  as  a  whole  they  are  not  thrifty,  frugal,  in- 
dustrious, or  ambitious.  Their  great  leader,  Booker 
T.  Washington,  has  recognized  that  the  negro 
problem  must  be  solved  by  the  individual  negroes 
largely  each  one  for  himself. 

The  Japanese  have  no  such  problem.  Their 
points  of  difference  from  their  brother  Aryans  of  the 
West  lie  largely  in  their  early  training,  and  in  their 
customs  developed  in  centuries  of  isolation.  They 
have  never  been  servile;  they  are  quite  competent 
to  solve  their  own  problems  individually  or  collec- 
tively; they  will  never  give  us  cause  to  question 
whether  indeed  "men  are  men";  they  have  their 
limitations,  all  sorts  of  people  may  be  found  among 
them.  Some  are  wise,  helpful,  honest,  devoted  in  the 
highest  degree,  and  with  the  addition  of  a  fine  touch 
of  artistic  taste;  some  are  as  selfish,  mean,  and  un- 
trustworthy as  the  worst  anti-Japanese  slanderer  has 
ever  imagined.  Our  own  race  shows  all  these  con- 
tradictions. 

Although  the  Japanese  farmers  and  labourers  of 
California  are  chiefly  drawn  from  the  group  of 
homeless  rice  hands  in  southern  Japan,  brought  to 
Hawaii  before  the  present  system  of  compulsory 
education  had  been  put  in  force,  and  innocent  of 
Japanese  culture  as  well  as  of  European,  yet  as  a 
whole  each  one  of  them  is  sufficient  unto  himself. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  271 

Under  the  training  of  our  schools  and  of  our 
business  conditions,  no  race  of  people  is  more  readily 
assimilated,  if  by  assimilation  we  mean  sympathy 
and  understanding  of  our  institutions.  This  is  a 
matter  quite  separate  from  physical  resemblance 
and  from  mixture  of  races.  And  while  no  one  would 
welcome  race  mixture  on  any  large  scale,  it  contains 
no  special  element  of  evil.  From  the  best  of  each 
race  superior  men  and  women  are  born.  When 
races  mix  at  the  bottom  the  progeny  is  like  its 
parentage.  Among  educated  Japanese  there  are 
many  mixed  families,  the  children  to  all  appearance 
worthy  of  father  and  mother. 

The  New  York  World  observes: 

Nothing  can  be  so  ironical  as  history. 

In  1853  it  took  a  few  shiploads  of  American  sailors  under 
Commodore  Perry  to  force  Japan  out  of  200  years  of  hermitage 
into  civilized  intercourse  with  the  rest  of  the  world. 

In  1913  it  takes  a  few  shiploads  of  Japanese  farmers  under 
Governor  Johnson  to  force  California  out  of  a  lifetime  of  civilized 
intercourse  with  the  rest  of  the  world  into  the  exclusions  and  dis- 
criminations and  repudiations  of  a  hermit  state. 

Californian  civilization  has  reached  the  same  crisis  in  1913  that 
Japan  civilization  had  reached  in  1853. 

Only  it  is  travelling  in  the  opposite  direction. 

Those  who  see  in  the  landholdings  thus  far  of  petty 
Japanese  gardeners  raising  strawberries,  potatoes, 
and  peaches,  a  small  germ  presaging  great  future 


272  WAR  AND  WASTE 

trouble  in  California  may  yet  be  in  the  right.  The 
anti-foreign  elements  in  feudal  Japan  sixty  years 
ago  had  the  same  forebodings,  and  so,  with  better 
reason,  had  the  Chinese  Boxers  in  1900. 

But  if  so,  it  is  a  matter  for  the  nation  to  investi- 
gate and  for  the  nation  to  remedy  by  mutual  agree- 
ment or  friendly  treaty.  It  is  not  a  simple  problem 
safely  or  righteously  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  legis- 
lature of  any  single  state. 

That  different  races  may  meet  in  continuously 
friendly  intercourse  and  on  terms  of  mutual  respect 
has  been  fully  demonstrated  in  Hawaii;  and  for  that 
matter  in  Japan  also.  The  treaty  ports  of  Yoko- 
hama, Kobe,  and  Nagasaki  have  long  held  a  large 
foreign  population,  Americans,  English,  German, 
Dutch,  and  Chinese.  Any  treatment,  really  un- 
just, of  Japanese  in  America  would  react  on  our 
own  varied  interests,  honourably  maintained  in 
Japan. 

XXXIII 
WHO    IS   THE    ENEMY? 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  talk  of  war  and  the  ever- 
recurring  danger  from  the  enemy?  Only  this: 
There  is  to  be  no  war.  There  is  to  be  no  foreign 
enemy.  The  enemy  is  he  who  talks  of  war,  the  evil- 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  273 

minded  knave,  the  noisy  fool,  the  unthinking  who 
echo  the  clamour  the  knave  and  fool  set  up. 

Just  now,  the  enemy  is  fuming  over  Japan.  There 
is  no  war  in  that  quarter.  There  is  no  trouble  save 
what  we  make  for  ourselves,  and  the  echoes  our  noises 
may  provoke.  Men  without  brains  in  the  long  run 
have  no  influence.  Between  cowardly  fear  and  cow- 
ardly bluster  there  is  not  much  to  choose. 

Let  us  look  quietly  at  the  situation.  Japan's 
people  recognize  —  those  who  have  the  breadth  of 
vision  belonging  to  the  good  citizen  —  that  the 
United  States  is  her  nearest  neighbour  among  the 
western  nations,  her  best  customer  and  most  stead- 
fast friend.  Her  own  ambitions  and  interests  lie  all 
in  the  restoration  of  Korea,  the  safeguarding  of  Man- 
churia, and  in  her  readiness  to  do  her  part  in  the 
untold  future  of  China.  She  is  in  debt  to  a  degree 
no  other  civilized  nation  knows;  her  taxes  are  crush- 
ing; her  country  is  without  roads,  and  her  railway 
system  must  be  rebuilt  at  a  -cost  she  dare  not  face. 
She  is  as  eager  for  more  war  as  we  of  California  for 
more  earthquakes. 

Along  the  borders  where  great  nations  meet  there  is 
friction  among  ill-tempered  or  narrow-minded  men. 
This  fact  makes  an  immigration  problem  on  the 
Pacific  Coast.  This  problem  was  bravely  met  and 
solved  in  1907.  It  was  solved  by  national  states- 


274  WAR  AND  WASTE 

men,  without  the  aid  of  local  politicians;  and  so  it 
was  honourably  solved. 

Next  comes  a  smaller  problem,  of  alien  landhold- 
ing.  It  is  microscopic  as  yet,  though  it  may  have 
germs  of  trouble  if  Japanese  farm  colonies  grow  up 
in  the  midst  of  an  environment  of  provincialism  and 
intolerance.  There  is  no  remedy  for  this  evil,  if  evil 
it  be,  except  through  a  careful  study  of  the  actual 
conditions  and  their  future  promise,  with  an  after 
adjustment  through  friendly  agreement  between  the 
Government  at  Washington  and  the  Ministry  at 
Tokyo.  As  this  matter  has  international  bearings 
and  results,  it  lies  outside  the  jurisdiction  of  any 
state.  In  assuming  to  usurp  federal  authority,  the 
Governor  and  Legislature  of  California  have  placed 
themselves  in  antagonism,  not  to  Japan  —  for 
California  can  have  no  direct  relations  with  a  foreign 
nation  — 'but  in  antagonism  to  the  United  States. 
This  antagonism  exists  in  fact,  even  if  it  be  true  that 
the  sinuous  language  of  the  statute  should  legalize 
its  obviously  unconstitutional  provisions.  In  any 
event,  the  courts  of  the  United  States  are  adequate 
to  settle  the  question.  Any  act  of  the  Legislature 
of  California  discriminating  between  foreign  nations 
must  become  an  act  of  the  United  States  itself,  or 
else  it  is  an  act  of  local  usurpation.  Only  sovereign 
nations  can  deal  with  sovereign  nations,  and  the 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  275 

Governor  of  California  is  not  a  ruler  of  any  sovereign 
nation.  He  has  no  ambassadors  from  foreign  courts 
and  he  receives  none.  All  his  foreign  business  is 
transacted  through  the  Department  of  State  at 
Washington. 

It  is  manifestly  a  duty  of  Japan,  as  of  any  other 
nation,  to  protest  against  discriminations,  and  there 
her  duty  stops,  until  the  question  of  jurisdiction  is 
settled.  And  there  it  has  stopped.  Only  the 
enemy  talks  of  Japan's  "arrogance,"  of  "her  efforts 
to  domineer,"  her  attempts  "to  force  the  issue." 
War  talk  the  world  over  is  99  per  cent.  lies.  It  has 
been  found  in  Germany  and  France  that  the  same 
money  is  used  in  both  countries  to  inflame  the  water- 
front mobs.  The  armour  pirates  of  the  world  play 
into  each  other's  hands. 

The  same  spirit  excites  the  waterfront  mobs  in 
Japan  and  in  the  United  States.  Fortunately  the 
saner  elements  in  both  nations  are  at  the  head  of 
affairs.  This  is  generally  the  case,  for  if  it  were  not 
so  nations  could  not  long  exist. 

I  quote  the  following  from  Mr.  Zumoto,  editor  of 
the  Japan  Times,  a  paper  in  Tokyo  representing  the 
opinion  of  the  Japanese  Government: 

The  cries  of  war  raised  in  yesterday's  meeting  in  the  Kokugi- 
kan,  Ryogoku,  as  a  demonstration  against  the  land-ownership 
legislation  in  California,  are  ill-advised,  to  say  the  least.  Those 


276  WAR  AND  WASTE 

speakers  who  indulged  in  such  rash  arguments  have  disqualified 
this  nation  for  criticising  America  for  its  having  Hobsons  and 
Hearsts.  Besides,  they  have  missed  the  mark  by  placing  the 
emphasis  on  the  anti-Japanese  sentiment  in  California.  Because 
no  amount  of  local  anti-Japanese  agitation  would  have  had  any 
serious  effect  on  Japanese  interests  but  for  the  circumstance  that 
the  Japanese  are  barred  from  naturalization  by  the  Federal  laws. 
The  Japanese  nation  has  not  yet  made  any  serious  effort  to 
obtain  the  right  of  naturalization,  and  if  we  did,  even  at  the 
present,  we  would  have  a  fair  chance  of  success.  Only  those  who 
talk  about  war  with  America  are  injuring  the  cause  of  Japan  by 
decreasing  the  chance  of  much  success.  America  is  a  democratic 
country,  and  has  the  right  to  refuse  citizenship  to  a  people  who 
have  shown  themselves  incompetent  to  carry  out  a  democratic 
government.  The  first  necessary  qualification  of  the  people 
for  the  task  is  that  they  should  be  able  to  discuss  national  or 
international  questions  in  a  calm,  dispassionate  way.  The 
people  who  easily  get  hysterical,  lose  their  reason  in  passion,  and 
are  inclined  to  decide  by  force  those  questions  that  can  be  decided 
by  discussion,  lack  the  political  self-restraint  without  which  a 
democratic  government  is  impossible.  We  would  refuse  to 
believe  that  the  Japanese  were  so  backward  in  political  training 
but  for  the  hysterical  demonstration  that  unfortunately  occurred 
here  yesterday. 

The  Japanese  crisis  is  not  a  matter  for  warships 
or  soldiers  or  local  politicians.  Its  solution  rests 
with  experts  in  Constitutional  Law  and  in  Social 
Relations. 

Whoever  talks  of  war  and  stirs  up  race  antipathies, 
he  is  the  enemy  in  either  nation.  The  name  traitor 
has  long  been  used  for  better  men. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  277 

XXXIV 
THE    SIX-POWER   LOAN   TO   CHINA 

Now  that  it  is  all  over,  what  shall  we  say  of  the 
Six-Power  Loan,  its  methods  and  its  purposes  ? 

This,  for  one  thing:  The  very  name  is  deceptive. 
The  United  States  can  have  no  part  in  a  "six-power 
loan";  it  must  be  some  one  else,  who  has  assumed 
our  name. 

The  United  States  is  not  a  "power"  —  only  an 
association  of  self-governing  people.  She  cannot,  in 
any  legal  way,  make  her  "power"  felt  in  nations 
with  which  she  is  at  peace.  She  has  no  machinery 
for  intermeddling,  and  no  taste  for  it.  She  has  never 
lent  any  money  in  foreign  lands.  She  has  no 
money  to  lend.  All  the  money  she  exacts  is  used  to 
pay  her  expenses.  She  has  not  yet  paid  all  her  debts. 

The  other  five  nations  concerned  may  be  "powers." 
They  have  the  "power"  to  make  secret  agreements 
in  the  interest  of  private  business.  But  they  have 
no  money  to  lend.  They  have  never  paid  their  debts. 
If  they  were  to  do  this,  they  would  have  to  cut  down 
very  materially  their  style  of  living.  They  are  living 
far  beyond  their  means  already. 

But  there  are  "powers"  within  powers  —  and 
it  is  these  inner  powers  that  lend  the  money.  The 


278  WAR  AND  WASTE 

"six-power  loan"  is  not  an  affair  of  nations,  but  of 
six  groups  of  bankers,  each  using  the  name  and 
influence  of  his  nation  for  his  own  purposes.  But 
even  these  bankers  do  not  always  furnish  the  money 
to  which  they  lend  their  names.  The  share  of  Tokyo 
in  this  loan  is  reported  to  be  borrowed  in  Paris,  as  is 
most  of  the  share  of  St.  Petersburg,  bankers  in 
Brussels  being  reputed  to  aid.  It  was  a  three-power 
loan  at  first,  then  a  four,  as  New  York  came  in  "at 
the  request"  of  our  State  Department,  it  is  claimed; 
and  at  last  a  six. 

The  purpose  of  such  a  loan  as  this,  with  its  special 
control  of  internal  revenues,  is  not  to  accommodate 
China;  the  point  is  to  secure  some  form  of  special 
privilege  for  each  of  six  groups  of  capitalists.  The 
prestige  of  the  nation  is  for  this  purpose  a  sort  of 
trade-name,  under  which  exploiters  and  dealers  in 
"spheres  of  influence"  transact  their  business. 

The  Chinese  people  are  afraid  of  "power  loans," 
and  their  experience  justifies  this  caution.  Not 
only  must  China  pay  the  common  usury  exacted 
of  debtor  nations,  but  the  transaction  is  likely  some- 
where to  cut  deeply  into  her  sovereignty.  The 
money-lenders  hunt  in  packs  when  concerted  action 
best  serves  their  interest,  and  sometimes  because 
they  dare  not  trust  each  other  to  hunt  separately. 

As  citizens  of  the  United  States,,  this  is  no  concern 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  279 

of  ours.  We  wish  our  bankers  well  in  their  foreign 
speculations.  There  is  nothing  wrong  in  lending 
money  to  nations  or  to  men  who  may  need  it.  But 
this  is  not  our  money.  We  ask  no  part  in  its  profits. 
We  take  no  share  in  its  risks.  There  is  nothing  wrong 
in  the  promotion  of  our  trade  by  representatives 
at  home  or  abroad.  But  such  promotion  must  be 
done  in  the  open,  treating  all  interests  alike,  and  not 
through  taking  advantage  of  the  weakness  or  need 
of  any  other  nation. 

We  are  thankful  that  we  have  a  wise  and  courage- 
ous President  who  knows  how  to  cut  loose  from  en- 
tangling alliances,  and  especially  from  connections 
without  warrant  in  good  policy  or  in  law. 

And  we  trust  that  in  our  efforts  for  the  "open  door" 
we  shall  not  be  betrayed  into  helping  to  hold  the  door 
open  by  threats,  nor  by  force  of  arms,  nor  as  an 
avenue  leading  up  to  "  spheres  of  influence, "  through 
any  perversion  of  "Dollar  Diplomacy." 

XXXV 

THE   OLD-AGE    PENSION 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  Old-Age  Pension  as  a 
wise  charity  of  the  state? 

We  shall  go  back  to  the  fundamental  principle  of 
democracy.  This  is  equality  before  the  law.  It  is 


28o  WAR  AND  WASTE 

the  elimination  of  privilege  wherever  found,  of  the 
rich  or  of  the  poor,  all  grants  of  something  for  nothing, 
all  pay  without  an  equivalent  service.  The  function 
of  the  state  is  to  provide  first  for  justice  —  that  is 
equality  before  the  law  —  the  square  deal  among 
men  and  interests.  Its  next  duty  is  to  provide  for 
all  things  needed  by  the  people  which  must  be  in 
public  rather  than  in  private  hands.  Schools,  armies, 
roads,  inspection  of  banks,  ships,  corporations,  come 
under  this  head,  as  also  conservation,  sanitation,  and 
many  other  things  as  yet  imperfectly  realized,  which 
must  come  with  time  through  the  state;  that  is, 
through  compulsory  combined  effort,  because  no 
other  agency  is  possible. 

But  the  state  is  only  a  plan  of  mutual  assessment. 
It  cannot  be  kind  or  charitable  or  paternal  except 
at  our  own  expense.  It  is  just  as  cheap  and  more 
effective  for  us  as  citizens  to  be  fraternal.  To  lean 
too  heavily  on  the  state  means  heavy  assessments 
on  its  stockholders  and  too  heavy  taxes  on  its 
people,  and  by  this  means  many  states  are  perilously 
near  bankruptcy.  Or  what  is  worse,  as  the  incidence 
of  taxation  is  easily  shifted  by  wealth  to  be  a  burden 
on  industry,  a  state  reaches  the  condition  when  a  few 
are  very  rich  while  the  mass  of  its  people  are  helpless. 

The  wealth  of  our  own  nation  does  not  rest  on  its 
great  sweep  of  prairies,  its  mines,  or  its  commerce. 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  281 

It  rests  primarily  on  the  fact  that  "America  means 
opportunity."  Our  nation  has  not  always  been 
true  to  the  principles  of  its  fathers,  but  it  has  not 
wholly  forgotten  them.  Its  free  schools  and  its 
absence  of  privilege  have  made  it  possible  for  each 
of  its  children  to  make  the  most  of  the  talents  with 
which  they  are  born. 

Its  people  have  not  been  crushed  by  taxation,  by 
caste,  nor  worn  out  by  losing  their  strongest  on  the 
field  of  battle.  The  young  men  grow  up  to  feel  that 
"the  world  is  their  oyster,"  and  it  is  for  them,  and 
for  them  alone  to  find  means  to  open  it.  The 
democracy  of  America  has  no  masters  save  of  its 
own  creation,  and  the  power  that  made  these  is 
adequate  to  set  them  aside 

The  democracy  of  England  has  [the  handicap  of 
ages  of  privilege.  Inequality  before  the  law  is  the 
foundation  of  British  polity.  England  chooses  lords 
and  magnates  and  tyrants  long  before  they  are  born. 
They  belong  to  her  system  of  privilege  by  which 
cities  like  Westminster,  Sheffield,  Devonport, 
Arundel,  were  held,  virtually  tax-free,  by  men  whose 
ancestors  received  their  land  as  royal  gifts  or  bought 
them  as  cow-pastures.  That  the  rich  have  special 
privileges  is  the  justification  for  special  privilege  to 
the  poor,  all  privilege  being  granted  at  the  expense 
of  industry. 


282  WAR  AND  WASTE 

The  "old-age  pension"  has  been  justly  compared 
to  the  free  pass  homeward  granted  to  the  human 
wrecks  who  have  lost  their  all  in  the  gambling  rooms 
of  Monte  Carlo.  It  is  the  shilling  given  to  the  man 
run  over  by  my  lord's  automobile. 

In  a  better  system  he  would  not  have  been  run 
over.  He  would  not  have  lost  his  money  in  a  vile 
resort.  He  would  not  have  needed  an  outside  pit- 
tance to  carry  him  through  old  age. 

But  the  facts  in  England  remain.  The  best  of  her 
workers  have  died  in  her  wars,  leaving  a  weaker  stock 
to  breed  from.  These  have  grown  up  unskilled,  in 
default  of  the  schools  that  make  men  strong.  They 
have  grown  up  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  public  house, 
sodden  with  lust  and  beer  and  whiskey.  They  have 
lost  the  opportunity  that  should  be  theirs,  and  at  the 
end  their  fellows  must  be  taxed  to  feed  them.  The 
tragedy  of  the  East  End  of  London  is  no  normal  part 
of  the  tragedy  of  Life.  It  is  no  part  of  the  normal 
America.  It  is  no  part  of  a  nation  which  has  given 
opportunity.  The  flag  of  freedom  never  floated  over 
a  nation  of  deadheads,  be  they  rich  or  poor. 

But  for  us  in  a  new  country,  fresh,  unspoiled,  full 
of  life  and  hope,  it  is  for  us  to  hold  our  government 
to  its  rigid  purpose,  to  develop  opportunity  by  the 
elimination  of  privilege,  to  lean  not  on  government 
but  on  ourselves,  and  to  aid  by  fraternal  giving  those 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  283 

who  have  fallen  in  the  press;  not  to  weaken  by  un- 
earned money  those  who  are  falling  but  who  can  be 
made  to  stand.  The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard, 
and  we  would  not  make  it  easier  if  we  could;  we 
could  not  if  we  would.  To  give  a  man  a  chance  to 
rise  is  to  allow  him  also  the  choice  to  fall. 

The  "old-age  pension"  is,  so  far  as  it  goes,  a  con- 
fession of  failure  of  administration.  Except  as  a 
measure  of  emergency,  its  real  purpose  in  England, 
it  has  no  justification  in  the  public  welfare.  The 
old-age  pension  is  part  of  the  dark  shadow  cast  over 
Europe  by  the  growth  of  the  gigantic  delusion  of 
"National  Defense."  Clean  up  the  social  atmos- 
phere, restore  to  the  people  what  is  rightfully  theirs, 
and  they  will  care,  rare  accidents  excepted,  for  their 
own  old  age. 

xxxvi 

POPULARIZE    THE    NAVY 

What  Shall  we  say  to  the  recent  move  to  "popu- 
larize the  navy,"  the  gigantic  parade  on  the  Hudson 
of  miles  on  miles  of  war  vessels  on  their  way  from 
the  Tax  Bureau  to  the  Junk  Shop  ? 

Let  us  look  on  this  mighty  array  of  ships,  splen- 
didly equipped  no  doubt,  and  manned  by  able  and 
worthy  men;  the  whole  never  to  be  needed,  under 


284  WAR  AND  WASTE 

any  conceivable  circumstances  by  the  people  who 
pay  for  it. 

We  are  told  that  a  purpose  of  this  pageant  of  the 
ships  is  to  "popularize  the  navy."  This  may  mean 
to  get  us  used  to  it  and  to  paying  for  it,  which  is  the 
chief  function  of  the  people  in  these  great  affairs. 
Or  it  may  mean  to  work  upon  the  public  imagina- 
tion so  that  we  may  fill  the  vacancies  in.  the  crops 
of  sailors  and  marines  who  "glare"  at  us  "through 
their  absences." 

By  all  means  let  us  popularize  the  navy.  It  is 
our  navy;  we  have  paid  for  it,  and  it  is  for  our  people 
to  do  what  they  please  with  it.  "For,  after  all, 
this  is  the  people's  country."  And  perhaps  we  could 
bring  it  nearer  to  our  hearts  and  thoughts  if  we 
should  paint  on  the  white  side  of  each  ship,  its  cost  in 
taxes,  in  the  blood  and  sweat  of  workingmen,  in  the 
anguish  of  "the  Man  Lowest  Down." 

There  is  the  good  ship  North  Dakota,  for  example. 
Her  cost  is  almost  exactly  the  year's  net  savings  of 
the  prosperous  state  for  which  she  is  named.  There 
are  the  fine  dreadnaughts,  which  fear  nothing 
while  the  nation  is  in  its  senses  and  in  war  noth- 
ing but  a  torpedo  boat  or  an  aerobomb.  It  would 
please  the  workingman  to  know  that  his  wages  for 
20,000  years  ($528  per  year,  on  the  average)  would 
purchase  a  ship  of  this  kind,  and  that  the  wages  of 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  285 

i, 600  of  his  fellows  each  year  would  keep  it  trim  and 
afloat.  As  the  procession  moves  by,  he  will  see 
ships  that  have  cost  as  much  as  Cornell  or  Yale  or 
Princeton  or  Wisconsin,  and  almost  as  much  as 
Harvard  or  Columbia;  and  on  the  flagship  at  the 
last  these  figures  might  be  summed  up,  the  whole 
costing  as  much  as  an  American  workman  would 
earn  perhapjs  in  a  million  years,  or  more,  a  European 
workman  in  twice  that  time,  and  an  Asiatic  in 
four  times.  These  figures  may  be  not  all  correct. 
It  would  require  an  expert  statistician  to  make  them  so. 
But  it  would  be  worth  while  to  have  them  accurate. 

If  all  this  is  needed  to  insure  the  peace  it  en- 
dangers, by  all  means  let  us  have  it.  There  is  no  cost 
we  cannot  afford  to  pay  if  honourable  peace  is  at  stake. 
But  let  us  be  convinced  that  peace  is  really  at  stake, 
and  that  this  is  the  means  to  secure  it.  Therearesome 
who  think  that  Christian  fellowship,  the  demands  of 
commerce,  and  a  civil  tongue  in  a  foreign  office,  do 
more  for  a  nation's  peace  than  any  show  of  force. 

XXXVII 
THE   AMERICAN    PEACE    POLICY 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  plans  of  the  President 
and  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  promotion  of  inter- 
national peace? 


286  WAR  AND  WASTE 

We  shall  say  that  nothing  more  practical  and  effec- 
tive has  yet  been  suggested.  There  is  no  better 
means  of  bringing  American  influence  to  bear  on  the 
problems  of  the  old  world. 

The  end  in  view  is  to  relegate  war  to  a  position  of 
last  resort  in  times  of  international  difference,  to 
place  soldiers  and  dreadnaughts  in  the  background 
—  not  in  the  front  of  national  movement. 

The  essence  of  this  American  policy  is  that,  in 
case  of  friction  between  nations,  the  matter  be 
placed  for  six  months  in  the  hands  of  a  joint  high 
Commission  of  Investigation,  chosen  in  part  from 
the  contending  nations,  the  majority  from  friendly 
neutrals.  These  for  six  months  shall  study  the 
question  at  issue,  neither  nation  in  the  meantime 
demonstrating,  mobilizing,  or  increasing  its  arma- 
ment, until  the  final  report  is  made.  After  this  each 
nation  is  free  to  choose  conciliation,  concession, 
compromise,  arbitration,  or  war.  And  with  six 
months  to  think  it  over  there  will  be  no  war.  Wars 
are  waged  for  greed,  for  politics,  or  because  the  mob 
has  been  stirred  by  senseless  speech  or  reckless 
journalism.  And  in  many  cases  this  reckless  journal- 
ism has  been  carefully  calculated  and  fully  paid  for 
by  those  interested  in  the  sale  of  the  accessories  of 
war. 

The  treaty  of  arbitration  will  naturally  follow  on 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  287 

the  treaty  for  investigation.  Courts  will  naturally 
supplement  results  of  friendly  offices.  But  the 
agreement  for  friendly  conference  comes  first  and  is 
for  the  present  the  more  important.  The  Treaty 
of  Arbitration  is  most  valuable  —  not  as  preventing 
war,  for  a  nation  bent  on  war,  if  there  is  such  a  nation, 
will  not  stop  to  agree  to  arbitrate.  The  world  is 
finally  ruled  by  public  opinion.  Arbitration  treaties 
clinch  public  opinion  and  hold  it  to  its  duty. 

The  present  decade  has  been  characterized  by 
needless,  costly,  and  brutal  wars,  the  result  not  of 
actual  conditions  of  to-day,  but  of  blunders  and 
crimes  committed  in  the  past.  Wars  do  not  spring 
up  afresh  in  our  civilization.  They  spring  from  old 
wars  whose  seeds  were  not  destroyed  by  peace. 

But,  however  dark  the  present  outlook  may  seem, 
with  half  the  coined  money  of  the  world  spent  each 
year  on  war  and  war's  accessories,  the  far  outlook  is 
most  promising.  The  unspeakable  horror  of  the 
Balkan  war,  the  waste  of  armed  peace  and  frustrate 
war  throughout  the  civilized  world  —  all  these  make 
powerfully  for  peace,  for  real  peace  —  the  Peace 
of  Law  and  Trust,  and  not  the  Peace  of  Force. 

And  just  now  is  the  time  when  American  influence 
can  be  most  definitely  crystallized  and  made  effective. 
And  we  are  thankful  that  we  have  in  the  seats  of 
authority  at  Washington  men  who  definitely  work 


:^ 


X 


Cl 


288 


WAR  AND  WASTE 


for  peace  and  whom  war  and  war's  fripperies  do  not 
dazzle  nor  attract. 


XXXVIII 
WHAT   IS    PEACE? 

What  shall  we  say  to  the  claim  the  War  Leagues 
make  that  with  them  are  the  true  workers  for  Peace? 
Only  this:  We  ask  for  a  definition.  There  are 
many  things  called  Peace.  We  do  not  question  the 
sincerity  of  those  who  give  the  word  a  meaning 
different  from  ours.  But  their  kind  of  Peace  may 
not  appeal  to  us.  We  contrast  the  j^eace  of  Force  \ 
with  the  Peace  of  Law,  the  peace  which  is  tempo- 
rary —  upheld  by  the  strong  arm  or  the  balance  of 
power  —  with  the  "old  Peace  with  velvet-sandalled 
feet,"  eternal,  so  long  as  it  rests  on  the  balance  of 
justice. 

It  may  be  well  to  work  for  the  Peace  of  Force, 
when  nothing  better  seems  possible.  It  may  be 
wise  to  spend  the  earnings  of  toiling  millions  to  secure 
it.  It  may  be  better  than  no  peace  at  all.  It  saves 
men's  lives  while  robbing  them  of  prosperity  and  of 
freedom.  But  at  the  best  it  is  only  a  temporary 
truce  threatened  by  each  fluctuation  of  the  "higher 
politics." 

The  Peace  of  Law  comes  slowly,  but  it  comes  to 


1 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  SAY  289 

stay.    Evil    customs   based   on   wrong   habits    of 

thought  cannot  be  set  aside  in  a  day.  Each  genera- 
tion contributes  its  quota  of  mutual  trust,  of  inter- 
national justice,  of  good-will  among  men.  The 
force  of  arms  shall  be  less  and  less  a  factor.  In  the 
realm  of  international  law,  the  great  state,  the  rich, 
the  powerful,  counts  for  no  more  than  the  least  that 
may  have  its  quarrel  just. 

The  Peace  of  Force  demands  that  each  and  all 
shall  be  fully  armed.  Before  it  is  the  vision  of 
universal  discord,  held  in  check  by  fear. 

The  Peace  of  Law  looks  forward  to  universal  order. 
It  has  no  need  of  force  save  as  it  may  arise  in  the 
joint  efforts  of  policing  civilization. 

For  the  leadership  in  peace  to-day  but  one  nation 
is  prepared.  She  is  hampered  by  no  past  history, 
by  no  present  recklessness.  Her  national  ideals 
need  no  change,  only  intensification  and  reconsecra- 
tion.  Our  Republic  stands  for  the  rule  of  civilian 
manhood,  the  dominion  of  law  and  order.  Under 
the  flag  where  hatred  dies  away,  she  is  secure  from 
all  attack.  She  can  safely  lay  down  her  arms;  and 
to  do  this  boldly,  in  courage,  in  confidence,  in  trust, 
in  law  and  righteousness,  would  be  to  lead  the  way  in 
which  all  Europe  in  a  generation  or  two  must  per- 
force follow.  For  Europe's  Peace  of  Force  has  failed. 
Her  people,  taxed  beyond  endurance,  writhe  in  dis- 


290  WAR  AND  WASTE 

content.  Her  war-chests  are  empty,  her  states  are 
mere  "provinces  of  the  Unseen  Empire  of  Finance." 
If  by  any  mischance  there  is  a  lapse  into  actual  war, 
the  Peace  of  Exhaustion  is  inevitable.  But  that 
again  is  not  peace.  It  is  permeated  by  seeds  from 
past  wars,  the  germs  of  future  disagreements.  The 
only  escape  for  civilization  is  through  the  Peace  of 
Law. 

Thus  war  is  dying,  though  it  strikes  hard  from  the 
death  coil.  It  has  been  slain  by  science._  It  has  been 
slain  by  democracy. 

Between  militarism  and  democracy  the  feud  is 
eternal.  As  the  spirit  of  manhood  rises  the  war 
spirit  must  fail. 

So  the  day  of  peace  is  coming.  Which  shall  it  be, 
the  Peace  of  Force  or  the  Peace  of  Law?  We  may 
work  for  either.  We  cannot  have  both.  Every  man 
has  some  influence  in  forming  public  opinion,  and, 
at  the  last,  the  world  is  ruled  by  what  its  people 
think.  You  have  a  vote  in  world  affairs.  Its 
weight  depends  on  your  intelligence  and  your 
integrity.  How  shall  your  vote  be  cast? 


THE  END 


M          +P 

<ri  |HA]A 


APPENDIX 

(From  the  Circular  of  the  Navy  League,  the  numbers  being 
added  for  reference.) 

SIXTY-SEVEN    REASONS     FOR    A    STRONG    NAVY 

The  navy  legislation  of  pressing  importance  referred  to, 
naturally  involves  the  consideration  of  why  the  United  States 
should  maintain  a  strong  navy,  and  we  therefore  respectfully 
submit  for  your  consideration  the  following  sixty-seven  reasons 
and  aphorisms  bearing  thereon: 

SEA    POWER    AND    HISTORY 

1.  Sea  power  was  indispensable  to  the  success  of  the  War 
of  the  Revolution. 

2.  The  navy  suppressed  the  war  on  commerce  by  the  Pi- 
rates of  the  Barbary  States. 

3.  The  navy  fought  and  won  the  War  of  1812. 

4.  The  Union  was  preserved,  and  the  outcome  of  the  War 
of  Secession  was  determined,  as  much  by  the  blockading  navy 
as  by  the  army  of  the  North. 

5.  National  humiliation  to  the  United  States  following  naval 
weakness  was  illustrated  by  the  humiliating  treatment  accorded 
to  American  seamen  in  Cuba  by  Spain  in  1873. 

6.  The  navy  decided  the  outcome  of  the  Spanish  War,  which 
would  never  have  taken  place  had  Spain  known  our  navy's 
strength. 

7.  England's  navy  has  given  Great  Britain  uninterrupted 
peace  on  the  water  for  nearly  one  hundred  years  and  her  shores 
have  not  been  successfully  invaded  for  nearly  a  thousand  years. 

291 


292  APPENDIX 

8.  China's  policy  of  evading  militarism  on  both  land  and  sea 
has  been  accompanied  by  disastrous  defeats  and  untold  hu- 
miliation. 

9.  Germany  was  once  defenseless  and  her  enemies  swarmed 
her  borders  and  took  possession  of  her  land. 

10.  Germany  with  an  adequate  army  and  navy  has  been 
practically  free  from  war  on  land  or  sea  for  forty  years  and  more- 

11.  Turkey  lost  Tripoli  because  of  pitiful  naval  weakness. 

NATIONAL  DEFENSE 

12.  The  navy  is  our  main  defense. 

13.  Undefended  resources  invite  aggression. 

14.  The  navy  has  21,000  miles  of  coastline  to  defend. 

15.  The  United  States  navy  has  more  harbours  with  large 
cities  and  a  larger  number  of  strategic  points  to  defend  than  has 
any  other  nation's  navy. 

16.  The  navy  must  defend  Porto  Rico,  the  Philippine  Islands, 
the  Hawaiian  Islands,  and  the  Panama  Canal. 

17.  ^Better  to  be  despised  for  too  anxious  apprehensions  than 
be  ruined  by  too  confident  security. " 

AMERICAN   POLICIES 

The  effectiveness  of  the  following  American  policies  depends 
finally  on  a  strong  navy,  viz.: 

1 8.  The  Monroe  Doctrine,*  particularly  in  its  relation  to  the 
West  Indies  and  lands  north  of  the  Amazon. 

*Note  i.  — The  Monroe  Doctrine  went  by  default  from  1862  to  1865  be- 
cause it  could  not  be  enforced  during  our  Civil  War.  Napoleon  III,  wishing 
to  colonize  Mexico,  placed  Maximilian  on  the  throne,  through  the  aid  of  the 
French  army,  and  against  the  protests  of  the  United  States.  The  close  of 
the  Civil  War  enabled  the  President  to  send  Sheridan  and  the  army  to  the 
Mexican  borders  and  naval  vessels  to  the  Mexican  coasts.  Napoleon  then 
withdrew  his  troops,  Maximilian  was  captured,  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
was  again  in  force. 

Note  2.  —  The  Monroe  Doctrine  was  again  upheld  by  the  presence  of  the 
United  States  battleship  fleet  during  the  critical  period  when  Germany  and 
Great  Britain  virtually  declared  war  against  Venezuela. 


APPENDIX  293 

19.  The  attitude  of  the  United  States  as  to  possession  or 
ownership  of  strategic  alien  harbours  and  coaling  stations. 

20.  The  neutrality  of  the  Panama  Canal,  including  the  neces- 
sary safeguarding  incident  to  the  passage  through  the  canal  of 
the  ships  of  belligerents,  when  other  nations  are  at  war. 

21.  The  restriction  of  Asiatic  immigration. 

22.  The  integrity  of  China. 

23.  The  open  door  of  trade  in  China. 

24.  Equal  rights  for  American  citizens  travelling  abroad, 
regardless  of  blood  and  religion. 

FROM  THE   STANDPOINT  OF  ECONOMICS 

25.  Battleships  are  cheaper  than  battles. 

26.  The  money  for  American  battleships  is  paid  to  American 
workingmen,  American  builders,  and  American  craftsmen. 

27.  The  Navy  Department's  demand  for  higher  qualities  of 
steel  and  better  mechanical  devices  has  aided  directly  in  Amer- 
ica's success  in  the  production  of  high  grade  steel  and  in  the 
building  of  bridges,  bicycles,  automobiles,  and  aeroplanes. 

28.  The  navy  is  a  school  of  efficiency,  teaching  many  trades; 
teaching  discipline  and  cleanliness  to  young  men,  a  large  portion 
of  whom  are  so  young  that  they  can  hardly  be  considered  as 
producing  units. 

29.  The  navy  as  a  trade  school  has  been  called  "Our  Great 
National  University. "    It  returns  to  civil  life  annually  as  many 
trained,  efficient,  and  patriotic  young  men  as  are  graduated  from 
the  five  leading  universities  of  the  country. 

30.  Germany's  prosperity  and  national  efficiency  can,  to  no 
small  extent,  be  attributed  to  the  training  received  by  citizens  in 
her  army  and  navy. 

31.  The  annual  cost  of  the  navy,  which  is  about  $130,000,000 
for  1912,  is  cheap  insurance  against  the  cost  of  war,  and  repre- 
sents approximately  the  cost  of  the  nation's  automobile  tires 
for  1912. 


294  APPENDIX 

32.  The  navy  is  one  of  the  foundations  of  nationalcredit  and  is 
insurance  against  the  unsettled  conditions  of  trade  and  commerce 
which  would  be  coincident  with  a  reputation  for  naval  weakness. 

OUTSIDE   THE   SPHERE   OF  WAR 

The  following  services  have  been  rendered  by  the  navy: 

33.  The  suppression  of  the  African  slave  trade. 

34.  The  suppression  of  piracy. 

35.  The  opening  of  Japan. 

36.  The  opening  of  Korea. 

37.  Arctic  exploration  and  relief. 

38.  Protection  of  the  fur  seals. 

39.  Pioneer  work  of  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

40.  The  establishment  of  lighthouse  service. 

41.  Pioneer  work  of  the  Weather  Bureau. 

42.  The  work  of  the  Naval  Observatory  and  Hydrographic 
Office. 

43.  Explorations  and  preliminary  surveys  for  various  Isth- 
mian Canal  routes. 

44.  Frequent  protection  of  missionaries  and  citizens  abroad. 

45.  Frequent  prevention  of  insurrection  in  the  West  Indies 
and  the  southern  republics. 

46.  Friendly  offices  to  Cuba,  Panama,  San  Domingo,  and 
Nicaragua. 

47.  Repeated  earthquake  and  famine  relief  at  Messina,  Mar- 
tinique and  San  Francisco;  in  Ireland  and  elsewhere. 

DIPLOMACY 

48.  The  weight  of  a  powerful  navy  gives  force  to  diplomacy. 

49.  Naval  power  is  a  legitimate  factor  in  international  set- 
tlements, because  it  is  the  evidence  of  national  efficiency. 

NATIONAL   PRESTIGE 

50.  George  Washington  said:    "There  is  a  rank  due  to  th« 


APPENDIX  295 

United  States  among  nations  which  will  be  withheld,  if  not 
absolutely  lost,  by  the  reputation  of  weakness.  If  we  desire  to 
avoid  insult,  we  must  be  able  to  repel  it.  If  we  desire  to  secure 
peace,  one  of  the  most  powerful  instruments  of  our  rising  pros- 
perity, it  must  be  known  that  we  are  at  all  times  ready  for  war. " 

PEACE   PROGRAMMES 

51.  Disarmament  and  obligatory  arbitration  are  incompatible. 

52.  Armament  may  be  the  instrument  to  force  the  adversary 
to  arbitrate. 

53.  The  general  arbitration  treaties  adopted  at  the  Second 
Hague  Conference  and  other  international  treaties  failed  to 
prevent  the  forcible  annexation  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  by 
Austria;  the  seizure  of  Tripoli  by  Italy;  the  invasion  of  Persia  by 
Russia,  and  the  terrible  war  in  the  Balkans. 

54.  The  military  powers  of  Europe  declined  to  enter  into  the 
Second  Hague  Conference  if  the  limitation  of  armament  were 
included  in  the  programme  of  subjects  for  consideration. 

55.  Arbitrators'  decisions  have  not  always  been  accepted. 

56.  Navies  will  be  needed  to  enforce  the  decree  of  a  Court  of 
Arbitration. 

57.  "Adequate  armament  and  effective  arbitration  are  cor- 
relative agencies  for  national  security  and  for  international  peace 
and  justice." 

PEACE 

58.  "Wouldst  thou  conjure  upon  any  country  the  clouds  of 
war  —  induce  its  government  to  disarm." 

59.  "Obviously,  the  permanent  peace  of  the  world  can  be 
secured  only  through  the  gradual  concentration  of  the  pre- 
ponderant military  strength  into  the  hands  of  the  most  pacific 
communities." 

60.  Power  and  strength  are  essential  for  the  noble  task  of 
peacemaker. 


296  APPENDIX 

GENERAL  REASONS 

61.  The  unexpectedness  of  war. 

62.  A  modern  navy  cannot  be  improvised. 

63.  In  the  family  of  nations,  any  one  disturbing  element  may 
cause  a  brawl. 

64.  Land  hunger  and  land  grabbing  are  as  much  in  evidence 
to-day  as  in  any  other  period  of  the  world's  history. 

65.  Might  does  not  make  right,  but  right  backed  by  might 
is  irresistible. 

66.  Negative  righteousness  means  abstaining  from  evil,  but 
positive  righteousness  may  require  a  fight  against  evil. 

67.  "When  the  great  interests  of  a  nation,  her  dignity,  her 
rights,  the  resources  of  her  livelihood  or  even  her  liberty  and  her 
honour  are  at  stake,  men  are  in  duty  bound  to  go  to  war,  to 
wage  battle  and  risk  their  lives.    There  are  consideration*  in 
this  world  which  are  higher  than  human  lives.    There  are  super- 
human interests,  there  are  ideals  dearer  than  our  own  persons, 
for  which  it  is  worth  while  struggling,  suffering,  fighting,  and 
dying.    Life  is  not  the  highest  boon  of  existence,  and  no  senti- 
mental reasons  based  on  the  notion  of  the  sacredness  of  life  will 
abolish  struggle  in  the  world  or  make  war  impossible." 


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